A shameful Aberdeen Employment Scandal - ARI - Aberdeen
- Raymond Smith
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
NHS Grampian have been Involved in some questionable practices over the years, and have treated their employees with nothing but disrespect. They found a new Champion. Sir Ian Woods Wife. Lady Helen Wood.
Extracted from the new book Sir Ian Wood Aberdeen's Billionaire
67. Lady Helen Comes Of Age
Sir Ian and his wife Lady Wood established a charitable foundation now known as the "Wood" foundation, to support various local and international charitable causes (A chapter which appears later in this book). Lady Helen, played a pivotal role in the foundation's efforts securing funding and overseeing the construction of a much-needed new car park at her city's main hospital “Aberdeen Royal Infirmary”. The impetus for the project stemmed from Lady Wood's personal experiences years earlier when her youngest son Garreth, battled meningitis at that very hospital. She had encountered the challenge of finding convenient parking spaces close to the hospital entrance. What caught her attention was the need to pay for parking in a poorly maintained and lit car park. Her concern extended beyond the personal cost of parking tickets; she worried about the potential financial strain on others who might struggle to afford these continuous parking charges while dealing with a seriously ill child or loved one. What further fueled her was the realisation that the very healthcare staff that saved her son's life were themselves required to pay for parking just for coming to work. She found it unjust and repulsive that nurses and other medical professionals were being taxed simply to commute and park at their job location. The Wood Foundation, established by the family in 2007, presented Lady Wood with the opportunity to address this issue. Considering the potential uproar and backlash that would ensue if similar parking charges were introduced within his own business “Wood Group”, or any other, Sir Ian quickly joined his wife in supporting the car park project.
The NHS stood out as the only employer entangled in financial contracts with third-party companies solely focused on extracting profits from its own workforce. Upon conducting an investigation, Lady Wood discovered funds generated from the hospital's car park were not reinvested in the hospital's development or the long-overdue upgrade of parking facilities. Instead, the money flowed directly back into the bank accounts of a private company contracted which managed the hospital's car park. This arrangement allowed hospital management to distance themselves from the car park's day-to-day operations and negative press, including issues such as fines and a scarcity of available spaces, deflecting blame away from themselves. Regrettably, this practice, constituting one of the most significant employment scandals of our era, has become standard across many UK hospitals today and is not unique to Aberdeen. However, unlike many hospitals, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary had the fortunate presence of a benefactor in Lady Wood. She recognized that those who could least afford parking fees were the ones compelled to pay them. Senior hospital management, consultants, high-earning doctors, and other well-compensated NHS managers, all on six-figure salaries, got free parking. Hospital management had struck a deal with the car parking contractor, granting themselves prime parking spaces within the expansive hospital facility at no cost. These designated spaces remained empty when those privileged staff members were absent. It became evident the burden of parking fees at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary fell squarely on the shoulders of hard-working nurses, junior doctors, cleaners, porters, catering and laundry staff, records and admissions personnel, ambulance and medical teams, and, of course, the visitors of patients.
Lady Wood maintained a positive rapport with the senior management at Grampian Health Board, having engaged with them over the years. Given this history, her interactions needed to remain cordial and respectful. The existing car parking policy at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary had been inherited from a previous hospital administration, it was a system they were either unsure how to change, or lacked the funding, motivation or management skills to change. In certain quarters of the NHS, there were those who didn't want a new car park. This hesitation stemmed from a condition set by the "Wood" foundation which stipulated: parking must be "free" for all users. Consequently if NHS Grampian agreed to the new car park proposal, they would forfeit the seven-figure sum received annually from their third-party parking contractor, and in no way did they want to give that up. However if management greed had prevailed and the car park had been refused by hospital managers, it would have been one of the biggest public scandals to hit Aberdeen. NHS management recognised the undeniable necessity of a much-needed new car park, it was deemed unthinkable to block it.
EXTRACTED FROM THE BIOGRAPHY - SIR IAN WOOD ABERDEENS BILLIONAIRE
A word from our sponsor
Billionaire industrialist Sir Ian Wood stands as the wealthiest homegrown founder of a company in Scotland. When he stepped down from the helm in 2013, his creation—Wood Group plc—had grown into a global powerhouse valued at $12 billion, operating in more than 60 countries, employing 60,000 people, and elevating his personal fortune to over £2 billion.
A figure both formidable and fiercely debated, Sir Ian Wood’s life unfolds as an extraordinary saga—one marked by relentless effort, unwavering determination, profound personal sacrifice, moments of tragedy, brushes with disaster, and the darker currents of betrayal, greed, immense wealth, and influence.
Beginning with his family’s modest fishing-boat repair business in 1967, he boldly steered the company into the emerging world of oil and gas just as the industry reached Britain’s shores in the 1970s. From there, he built a sprawling empire that touched shipping, energy, fishing, technology, travel, electronics, power generation, offshore drilling, and property development. His leadership oversaw the most dramatic industrial transformation Aberdeen had ever seen.
Now, for the first time, the story long hidden behind closed doors is revealed. This is an explosive, deeply revealing journey into the sometimes shadowy, often ruthless, yet undeniably electrifying world of the Aberdeen oil and gas sector—its power brokers, its high-stakes decisions, and the man whose influence shaped an era.
Sir Ian’s real-life ascent makes HBO’s Succession seem like little more than a gentle bedtime tale.
His achievements stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the greatest entrepreneurs in any industry, at any point in history.
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