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Showing results for tags 'Speaking up'.
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Content ArticleImproving patient safety culture (PSC) is a significant priority for OECD countries as they work to improve healthcare quality and safety—a goal that has increased in importance as countries have faced new safety concerns connected to the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings from this OECD benchmarking work in PSC show that there is significant room for improvement.
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Content ArticleThe importance of employee voice—speaking up and out about concerns—is widely recognised as fundamental to patient safety and quality of care. However, failures of voice continue to occur, often with disastrous consequences.
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Content Article
Blog: At the edge of inside (24 June 2016)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Culture
In this opinion piece for The New York Times, David Brooks looks at the value of being 'at the edge of the inside'. He argues that being within an organisation, but not so close to the centre that you are subsumed by the 'group think', puts an individual in a good position to positively influence the organisation's culture and practice. -
Content ArticleNorthumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust were awarded the Freedom to Speak Up Organisation of the Year Award at the 2021 HSJ Awards with their demonstration of an integrated approach to speaking up. Kirsty Dickson was appointed as the first Freedom to Speak Up Guardian at Northumbria, following recommendations in the Francis Report. Since then, she has been working proactively to make sure that Freedom to Speak Up is woven into the fabric of the organisation.
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Content ArticleThe Royal College of Anaesthetists is launching a campaign to prevent future deaths from unrecognised oesophageal intubation following a recently received coroner’s report where an oesophageal intubation took place and was not recognised in time to save the life of the patient. The coroner’s report highlighted the critical importance of human factors in safe anaesthetic practice. In this blog, Matt Bigwood and Chris Frerk discuss how one of the main aims of the campaign is to empower every team member, regardless of position, to be able to speak up if they spot this problem. You can also read more about the campaign here.
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Content ArticlePandemic and backlog pressures may make candour more challenging but do not make it any less essential, the panel at a recent HSJ webinar argued.
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Content Article
West Suffolk Review (9 December 2021)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Other reports and inquiries
Findings from an independent review, commissioned by NHS Improvement in February 2020, at the request of the Department for Health and Social Care, into the handling of whistleblowing at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. -
Content Article
Special investigation: The voice of nursing on mute (1 December 2021)
Sam posted an article in Whistle blowing
The Nursing Times has carried out an investigation into nurses’ experiences of speaking out in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, revealing disturbing findings about the current state of openness in the NHS. -
Content ArticleThis article in the Financial Times by Alicia Clegg discusses how cronyism corrodes workplace relationships and destroys trust. It shows that the issues are common to both public and private sectors and demonstrates the need to seek out and resolve root causes.
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Content ArticleMedical expertise is fundamental to the practice of medicine. But other skills and knowledge are important too. Doctor Informed gives the inside story on the evidence about giving the best care and having positive relationships with patients and colleagues.
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Event
Scottish Speak Up Conference
Sam posted an event in Community Calendar
This conference is for staff involved in managing concerns in NHS Scotland, including the promotion, delivery, and use of the Whistleblowing Standards. The Independent National Whistleblowing Office are supporting the event. It will explore the legislative requirements around whistleblowing and the benefits of effective management of concerns. The programme concludes with a focus on what a healthy speak up culture looks like and how that can be delivered. The day will be chaired by John Sturrock, KC, and include a keynote presentation from Rosemary Agnew, the Independent National Whistleblowing Officer. It also brings together expert speakers from NHS Scotland, Scottish Government, trade union and academia with expertise in speaking up, culture change, quality, safety and candour. The programme will consider the Whistleblowing Standards since their launch in April 2021, as they approach their anticipated 3-year review. It offers an opportunity to share good practice, support ongoing improvements and promote an effective Speak Up culture that works from the bedside to the boardroom. Programme Register -
EventDr Leslie Hamilton, assistant coroner and retired cardiac surgeon, will speak about the importance of creating and maintaining a no-blame culture within NHS and independent healthcare organisations. This should help to ensure that people feel able to share and reflect honestly whenever things go wrong in care, so that lessons can be learnt and changes made to improve patient safety. Register
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EventPart of Whistleblowers Awareness Week (WBUK). Aims and Objectives: 1. To engage MPs, organisations and policy makers in understanding the consequences of the victimisation of healthcare whistleblowers for patients and the public. 2. To help remove the stigma around the subject of whistleblowing. 3. To inform attendees of the benefits of change and how this links to the Protection for Whistleblowing Bill [HL] and an Office for the Whistleblower. 4. To provide information that will enable attendees to take practical, measurable steps to move the agenda forward and join in with the work of the APPG and WBUK. Speakers: Dr Jenny Vaughan OBE - Doctors’ Association U.K. Cathryn Watters RGN – Whistleblowers and regulation Steve Turner RMN – Patient experience Professor Emmanouil Nikolousis (online) – Cultures of fear Panel members: Mr Chris Day - CQC Director of Engagement Dr Chris Day Dr Chaand Nagpaul CBE Tom Grimes - NHS England Head of Advocacy and Learning (FTSU) Dr Jayne Chidgey-Clark - National Guardian for the NHS More information
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EventuntilWhistleblowing is barely out of the news. We cannot turn on the TV without a headline or plot that relies on whistleblowers and how badly they are treated. Think about our police, NHS, armed forces, media, banks, corporations - the list goes on... Whistleblowing is good for society and good for business. Whistleblowers are the most effective first line of defence against crime, corruption and cover up. Whistleblowing Awareness Week (WBAW) is an opportunity for MPs to understand how proposed legislation is key to driving a culture where speaking up is valued, and where people who try to silence whistleblowers or suppress evidence of wrongdoing face the full force of the law. WBAW will dispel the stigma and suspicion that overshadow whistleblowers. It will also set out how the Whistleblowing Bill developed by WhistleblowersUK for the APPG for Whistleblowing will transform the way that whistleblowers and whistleblowing are treated. See the events going on for WBAW
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EventuntilJoin Kayleigh Barnett, Senior Improvement Advisor at Aqua who will share her experience in using Appreciative Inquiry methods to create additional value for learners in a quality improvement (QI) programme aimed at aspiring senior leaders. Appreciative Inquiry is increasingly used as the basis for building a structured learning process and this session will present a case study, and provide practical ideas for you to consider. Ensuring that Appreciative Inquiry processes are included in any part of an organisation can also contribute to psychological safety. Psychological safety is the belief that you won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. Kayleigh has worked at Aqua for six years and is the Delivery Lead for Appreciative Inquiry. She is an accredited Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner from the International Academy of Appreciative Inquiry. Her other areas of work are quality improvement and human factors. The case study she will present has also been featured in the September edition of the Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner journal. Register
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EventuntilBringing together a community of human factors in patient safety advocates across Ireland and abroad, the annual Human Factors in Patient Safety Conference will offer the opportunity to gain valuable knowledge and insights from human factors experts. The conference will include contributions from: Martin Bromiley OBE, Founder of Clinical Human Factors Group UK – Listening Down to Develop your Safety Behaviours Mr Peter Duffy, Consultant Urologist – Whistle in the Wind: a Personal Exploration of the Consequences of Whistleblowing in Healthcare Professor Eva Doherty (Chair), Director of Human Factors in Patient Safety – The Irish Context, panel discussion Healthcare professionals can register for the event here. For more information, please email mschumanfactors@rcsi.ie.
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Community Post
Can the NHS learn from healthcare systems overseas?
Steve Turner posted a topic in Organisational
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Is it time to change the way England's healthcare system is funded? Is the English system in need of radical structural change at the top? I've been prompted to think about this by the article about the German public health system on the BBC website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-62986347.amp There are no quick fixes, however we all need to look at this closely. I believe that really 'modernising' / 'transforming' our health & #socialcare systems could 'save the #NHS'. Both for #patients through improved safety, efficiency & accountability, and by making the #NHS an attractive place to work again, providing the NHS Constitution for England is at the heart of changes and is kept up to date. In my experience, having worked in healthcare for the private sector and the NHS, and lived and worked in other countries, we need to open our eyes. At present it could be argued that we have the worst of both worlds in England. A partially privatised health system and a fully privatised social care system. All strung together by poor commissioning and artificial and toxic barriers, such as the need for continuing care assessments. In my view a change, for example to a German-style system, could improve patient safety through empowering the great managers and leaders we have in the NHS. These key people are held back by the current hierarchical crony-ridden system, and we are at risk of losing them. In England we have a system which all too often punishes those who speak out for patients and hides failings behind a web of denial, obfuscation and secrecy, and in doing this fails to learn. Vast swathes of unnecessary bureaucracy and duplication could be eliminated, gaps more easily identified, and greater focus given to deeply involving patients in the delivery of their own care. This is a contentious subject as people have such reverence for the NHS. I respect the values of the NHS and want to keep them; to do this effectively we need much more open discussion on how it is organised and funded. What are people's views? -
Community Post
Independent Review into the handling of whistleblowing at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
Steve Turner posted a topic in Bullying and fear
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The West Suffolk Independent Review published yesterday indicates that safety concerns were ignored and the hunt for an anonymous whistleblower was "flawed" and "ill-judged". https://www.england.nhs.uk/east-of-england/wp-content/uploads/sites/47/2021/12/west-suffolk-review-081221.pdf This Review was commissioned following widely reported events arising from an anonymous letter that was sent in October 2018 to the relative of a patient who had died at the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). The 225 page report contains important learning and highlights the need for an open culture in the NHS and an end to a culture of avoidance, denial and victimisation of those who speak out for patient safety. This report highlights the need for cultural change and raises several key points: The importance of real and empowered clinical leadership. The importance of NHS leaders being self-questioning, open to criticism and to listen to staff. The importance of leaders understand the value of dissent and disagreement. Where concerns and criticisms appear or do turn out to be misguided, the need for NHS leaders to avoid jumping to any conclusion that the individual raising them is simply making trouble.- Posted
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Community PostIt's #SpeakUpMonth in the #NHS so why isn't the National Guardian Office using the word whistleblowing? After all it was the Francis Review into whistleblowing that led to the recommendation for Speak Up Guardians. I believe that if we don't talk about it openly and use the word 'WHISTLEBLOWING' we will be unable to learn and change. Whistleblowing isn’t a problem to be solved or managed, it’s an opportunity to learn and improve. So many genuine healthcare whistleblowers seem to be excluded from contributing to the debate, and yes not all those who claim to be whistleblowers are genuine. The more we move away for labelling and stereotyping, and look at what's happening from all angles, the more we will learn. Regardless of our position, role or perceived status, we all need to address this much more openly and explicitly, in a spirit of truth and with a genuine desire to learn and change.
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Community Post
Resetting priorities for Safer Healthcare
Dr Akhil Sangal posted a topic in Leadership for patient safety
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Content ArticleThe case of Lucy Letby, who was convicted of the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of another six in August 2023, has shocked both the public and the healthcare community. In this BMJ editorial, independent investigator Bill Kirkup and James Titcombe, Chief Executive of Patient Safety Watch, outline how the failure to listen to healthcare professionals raising concerns in the case may have contributed to further deaths. They highlight that when doctors at the Countess of Chester Hospital had concerns that they were seeing more deaths than expected, managers failed to take seriously their instinct that there might be a specific underlying cause. The doctors were even pressured into apologising to Letby. They argue that in spite of efforts by the NHS to create a culture where it is safe for staff to speak up about concerns, whistleblowers are still often ostracised and threatened when they highlight patient safety concerns. The article calls for health organisations to adopt the voluntary charter around candour currently being signed by police services and other bodies, pending the implementation of the proposed Public Authorities (Accountability) Bill, which would place a much-needed enduring duty of candour on NHS staff and organisations.
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Content ArticleTwo years after his 13-year-old child died needlessly in hospital, Paul Laity reflects on life without her. Martha Mills died of septic shock due to a series of serious failures in her care after she injured her pancreas in a cycling accident. Her father Paul talks about the ongoing pain of grief, and the additional burden of knowing that Martha's death was preventable, caused by the complacency of her doctors and a culture in the hospital that meant consultants were reluctant to ask expert advice from paediatric ICU. "Martha’s avoidable death was unusual in that the prime causes weren’t overwork or a lack of resources, but complacency, overconfidence and the culture on the ward. What upsets me most was that the consultants – a different one most days – took a punt that she was going to be OK over the weekend. No one assumed responsibility; they hoped for the best rather than playing safe. Was everything done for Martha that could have been done? Emphatically not. It’s very hard to live with this knowledge. But just as hard is the recognition that I, too, didn’t do enough." Further reading ‘We had such trust, we feel such fools’: how shocking hospital mistakes led to our daughter’s death (The Guardian, 3 September 2022) Prevention of Future Deaths Report: Martha Mills (28 February 2022)
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Content ArticleIn this letter, Rob Behrens, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, calls on the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Steve Barclay MP, to prioritise improving patient safety in the wake of the Lucy Letby trial.
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Content ArticleFollowing the Lucy Letby case, letters to the Times discuss workplace rights and safety in hospitals. Keith Conradi, former chief investigator, Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch, highlights a current NHS workforce too frightened to raise safety concerns, working in a toxic and bullying culture, where the predominance of HR approaches undermine the culture of safety. And Andrew Harris, professor of coronial law, William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Marys University London, writes that there is a duty on medical practitioners to report the circumstances of a death and not to limit disclosure to avoid investigation. In his letter he questions whether medical examiners across the country are acting independently of their trusts and properly notifying such cases.
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Content ArticleWe now know that Lucy Letby is a murderer, responsible for the deaths of seven babies and the attempted murders of six more. But as unimaginable as her crimes were, this verdict raises as many questions as it answers. Letby was not working in a vacuum. Could the killings at the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust have been stopped sooner? Did organisational failures cost the lives of babies who could have been protected? The timeline gives us a clue, writes Minh Alexander, a retired consultant psychiatrist and NHS whistleblower, in this Guardian opinion piece. In June 2016, Letby’s hospital trust commissioned a review of neonatal care by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health after “concerns about increasing neonatal mortality”, which oddly did not feature a case-note review. This prevented detailed examination of the deaths, which should have been the prime objective. The college reported “extremely positive relationships” among staff but “remote” relationships with executives. Astonishingly, the college’s report seemingly did not explicitly acknowledge a possibility of deliberate harm. Nevertheless, the college raised concern that not all deaths were followed by postmortem investigations – as they should have been, according to guidelines – and that where postmortems did take place, they did not include systematic blood tests and toxicology. It noted concerns from obstetrics staff about four unexpected deaths. In the coming days, there will be many questions. Why did it take so long for the hospital to refer matters to the police? Were doctors pressured not to persist with their concerns about Letby? How many trust board members knew there was a possibility of deliberate harm but failed to act?
