Owami Davies: Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS trust ‘delayed’ staff appeal on missing Black colleague

NHS colleagues of Owami Davies were only notified about her disappearance a month after she went missing, as departments failed to report that she had not turned up for shifts, The Independent has learned.

The student nurse was last seen by her family on 4 July who reported her absence to Essex Police two days later.

But Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT), where Ms Davies was working, did not share the information across the organisation until 4 August.

That delay has drawn criticism from Ms Davies’ colleagues who say it is in contrast to the trust’s handling of Petra Srncova’s disappearance last December, a white nursing assistant, when it sent an internal email within days of the employee going missing.

NHS staff members have expressed to The Independent their concern about the trust’s ”inadequate” response and lack of urgency towards Ms Davies’ disappearance, adding that the only difference between her case and Petra’s is race. GTTS denies that this played a factor in its decision-making around communications.

“The trust’s approach isn’t right. We immediately heard about Petra Srncova’s disappearance last year - she’s white. Owami’s the second member of staff who’s gone missing in a period of eight months and we’ve barely heard anything from the trust,” one GTTS staff member, who didn’t want to disclose their identity to the public, said.

“They should’ve been on this right from the start, particularly since the very early stages of missing cases are often the most crucial.”

Questions have also been raised about when the GSTT was first informed that Ms Davies was missing as different teams appeared to know different information at different points.

A well-placed source has told The Independent that trust bosses knew within two weeks of Ms Davies’ disappearance but claimed they “sat on” the information, neglecting to notify colleagues across the trust for a further two weeks.

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The trust’s placement team also failed to report that Ms Davies’ hadn’t turned up for shifts over a week after her disappearance, The Independent was told. GSTT hasn’t denied this.

Before Ms Davies was last seen by family on 4 July, she was nearing the end of her studies at King’s College London and she had secured a job with the trust.

However, sources have confirmed the job wasn’t secured and her offer of work was withdrawn by the trust while she was missing.

A source with knowledge of the case told The Independent that GSTT’s recruitment team did not know she was missing until around 4 August when the trust-wide email was sent out.

As a result, it had been sending emails about the job offer to Ms Davies with the expectation of a reply while police investigations were underway.

When she failed to respond, an automated job rejection email was sent to her around 4 August informing her that she no longer had long-term work prospects there.

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Staff members fear that this may have caused Ms Davies, who police have described as “vulnerable”, further distress if she was still viewing emails.

A spokesperson from Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust confirmed the job offer was withdrawn due to an automated system when a response was not received but said “as soon as this was discovered we very quickly reinstated the job offer which remains open”.

The trust’s handling of the matter is not all about race, one GSTT employee said, because there’s not enough clarity around the trust’s responsibilities should student nurses like Ms Davies go missing.

“However, the trust has long standing and well-documented challenges with how it treats minority staff members,” the staffer continued.

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“GSTT, when they knew there was a concern, could and should have handled it very differently and it feels that everything they have done has been an after-thought to tick a box.”

A spokesperson from campaigning group Equality 4 Black Nurses, told The Independent that the NHS’ “treatment towards Owami is a snapshot of a wider problem within the service”.

“Black nurses are not listened to, undermined, put down, targeted, bullied and often harassed within the organisation,” they said.

“Nursing is the most trusted profession in the world, but not if you are a Black nurse.”

A spokesperson from Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust added: “We are devastated about the disappearance of our colleague Owami Davies, and strongly refute any claim that we would treat her disappearance differently based on her race.

“There are always many factors involved with an ongoing missing person case, and we are working closely with the police to support their investigation, alongside King’s College London where Owami is a student.

“Colleagues who work alongside Owami were informed and offered support as soon as we were made aware of her disappearance, and we issued an email to all of our staff on Thursday 4 August, following the Met Police’s first press release on Saturday 30 July.”