Whistleblowing nurse no longer trusts the NHS

A trust must pay a whistleblowing nurse £14,000 in damages and lost earnings, a judge has ordered. 

Mark Temperton won his whistleblowing case at an employment tribunal in May, but the full judgement has just been published.

Mr Temperon worked as a band five agency nurse for Blackstone Recruitment. He was booked to work a night shift in the Priesters psychiatric intensive care unit at Greater Manchester Mental Health Foundation Trust’s Atherleigh Park Hospital.

During the shift, a patient was brought in by the police and “immediately” put into seclusion because of staff shortages. Mr Temperton subsequently raised this as a concern with the nurse in charge and a locum consultant psychiatrist. However, the patient was kept in seclusion.

According to the Mental Health Act’s code of practice, seclusion “should not be used as a punishment or a threat, or because of a shortage of staff”. Serious concerns were also raised about the trust’s Edenfield Centre in September 2022 by BBC Panorama, one of these was the use of inappropriate seclusion.

After blowing the whistle, Mr Temperton was told he would be offered no more shifts at the hospital.

The tribunal heard that losing the shifts caused the claimant to ask himself “what have I done?” and to “question himself over whether he should have ever raised any concerns”.

Employment judge Holmes said: “The experience has left him nervous and too vulnerable to work as a nurse on any agency basis. He felt anxiety, a feeling of nervousness, fear for the future and dread.

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Source: HSJ, 23 August 2024