WHISTLEBLOWER Linda Bigwood has told how she has received no apology since her attempt to expose psychiatrist William Kerr wrecked her career.

The former York nurse was speaking a fortnight after an official report into the way the NHS handled complaints about Kerr and his colleague Michael Haslam and praised her as one of the few health service staff unwilling to turn a blind eye.

It said that after a patient had told her in 1984 that she had had a sexual relationship with Kerr, Linda doggedly pursued a complaint against him for five years, and suffered "professional detriment" as a result.

She has now told the Evening Press that while former Kerr and Haslam patients had rightly been given full apologies by the health service and were likely to receive damages, she had heard and received nothing. "Why not?" she asked.

"I jeopardised not only my career, but also my health, because I refused to turn a blind eye. My career was wrecked, I lost a stone in weight and was diagnosed with severe stress in the mid-1980s."

Linda was speaking before she yesterday took up her first senior management post within the NHS since her career nosedived in the wake of Kerr.

She claimed that while the report's recommendations were "thorough and far-reaching", it had still failed to bring to account NHS staff who had dealt with the complaints against Kerr and Haslam. "The report is soft on those who systematically protected systematic abusers," she claimed.

She also claimed that the inquiry had itself put her through unnecessary stress, anxiety and distress for two years by failing to fund a solicitor to represent her until just a few weeks before the hearing met. But she praised the courage of the "very strong and brave" former patients who had come forward to give evidence about their abuse and whose story had finally been told.

The North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire Strategic Health Authority, speaking on behalf of the NHS in North Yorkshire, said today that the report had adopted its description of Linda as being "courageous, persistent and determined in her fight to have a proper investigation into patient allegations".

A spokesman added: "We accept that Linda deserved a better hearing. We apologise for the fact that NHS staff failed to ensure this in respect of the complaints she sought t pursue on behalf of patients."

An inquiry spokesman said that it was deeply regrettable if Linda had suffered any unnecessary stress through delays in paying for a solicitor, but it was essential that other avenues of funding should be explored before public money was spent.

Updated: 10:21 Tuesday, August 02, 2005