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Showing results for tags 'Whistleblowing'.
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Content ArticleIn this podcast, Peter Duffy, Consultant Urologist, addresses University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT). He speaks of the significant and damaging challenges faced by himself and others who raise concerns about patient safety, including bullying, harassment and abuse. He argues that whistleblowers are suffering personally and professionally when they speak up on behalf of patients. Duffy states: "There remain safety critical issues that the governors need to hold the Board to account over, if the Board is to regain the full confidence of staff and patients".
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News ArticleA whistleblower raised the alarm over patient safety at West Suffolk Hospital because of concerns about the behaviour of a doctor who had been seen injecting himself with drugs, the Guardian has revealed. The incident had already prompted internal complaints from senior staff at West Suffolk hospital, but the whistleblower decided to take matters a step further when the same doctor was later involved in a potentially botched operation. The whistleblower then wrote to relatives of a dead patient and urged them to ask questions about the conduct of the doctor and his background. When they did this, the hospital launched a widely criticised “witch-hunt” in an attempt to find out the identity of the leaker. The doctor’s drug use, which the trust has never acknowledged until now, helps explain why it demanded fingerprint and handwriting samples from staff – tactics which the NHS regulator roundly condemned in a hard-hitting report last week. Read full story Source: Guardian, 5 February 2020
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News ArticleNHS Trusts have spent nearly £20 million in four years battling whistleblowers, defending claims of workplace discrimination and fighting employment disputes, the Sunday Telegraph can disclose. Data obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) has revealed that a minority of healthcare trusts, often advised by the same law firms, are repeatedly running up huge legal bills. Former health minister Sir Norman Lamb said some of the NHS employment cases he has witnessed in the last eighteen months involved ‘scandalous’ uses of public money. “It is not all NHS trusts in the country, but there are a small number where the culture is clearly wrong,” said Sir Norman. Commenting on the findings, Tim Farron, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, who has fought for whistleblowers in his own constituency, said: “Millions of pounds of tax payers’ money is being spent across our health service by NHS Trusts defending their actions in employment tribunals in cases of discrimination and unfair dismissal. It is only right that questions are being asked." Read full story Source: The Telegraph, 1 February 2020
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News Article
Top hospital downgraded amid safety fears and whistleblowing inquiry
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The hospital at the centre of a whistleblowing inquiry has been downgraded by the care watchdog and issued with a warning notice amid concerns over leadership and patient safety. West Suffolk Foundation Trust has been rated requires improvement by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in a damning report having previously been rated outstanding since 2017. The trust, whose Chief Executive Stephen Dunn received a CBE for services to patient safety in 2018, has faced criticism after bosses threatened senior doctors with a fingerprint and handwriting analysis to try and identify a whistleblower. In a new report published today, the CQC inspectors said they had significant concerns about the safety of mothers and babies in the trust’s maternity unit and the criticised the culture of the trust leadership referencing what they called “threatening” actions. In the West Suffolk hospital maternity unit the CQC found staff had not completed key safety training, did not protect women from domestic abuse, and staff did not always report safety incidents. They also found maternity staff were not taking observations and the unit lacked enough staff with the right qualifications to keep women safe. The trust was issued with a warning notice by the trust demanding it make improvements before the end of this month. On the trust leadership the CQC report said: “The style of executive leadership did not represent or demonstrate an open and empowering culture. There was an evident disconnect between the executive team and several consultant specialities." Read full story Source: The Independent, 30 January 2020 -
News Article
Urgent inquiry ordered into 'witch-hunt' at West Suffolk hospital
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The government has ordered an urgent inquiry into the local hospital of the health secretary, Matt Hancock, after the Guardian revealed its unprecedented “witch-hunt” for a whistleblower. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has told NHS England to commission a “rapid review” of the actions of bosses at West Suffolk hospital. They are under fire for demanding that staff give fingerprints and samples of their handwriting to help identify who wrote to a family alerting them to failings in care that contributed to a patient’s death. Unusually, the investigation has been instigated by Edward Argar, a junior minister at the DHSC, because Hancock and another health minister, Jo Churchill, are both local MPs who have close ties to the hospital. Argar has made clear to NHS England that the inquiry must be undertaken by independent experts, given those existing relationships. Announcing the review, Argar made clear that he wanted hospital personnel to speak openly. “I want all staff to feel that they can speak up and have the confidence that anything they raise will be taken seriously,” he said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 28 January 2020 -
News ArticleThe Care Quality Commission (CQC) missed multiple opportunities to identify abuse of patients at a privately run hospital and did not act on the concerns of its own members, an independent review has found. Bosses at the CQC have been criticised in an independent report by David Noble into why the regulator buried a critical report into Whorlton Hall hospital, in County Durham, in 2015. His report published today said the CQC was wrong not to make public concerns from one of its inspection teams in 2015. “The decision not to publish was wrong,” his report said, adding: “This was a missed opportunity to record a poorly performing independent mental health institution which CQC as the regulator, with the information available to it, should have identified at that time.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 22 January 2020
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News ArticleHospital bosses have been accused of launching a witch hunt to find a whistleblower who told a widower about blunders in the treatment his wife received. The row emerged as an inquest began into the death of Susan Warby who died five weeks after bowel surgery. The 57-year-old died at West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds after a series of complications in her treatment. Her family received an anonymous letter after her death highlighting errors in her surgery, the inquest in Ipswich heard, and both Suffolk Police and the hospital launched investigations. These investigations confirmed that there had been issues around an arterial line fitted to Ms Warby during surgery, Suffolk’s senior coroner Nigel Parsley said. Doctors were reportedly asked for fingerprints as part of the hospital’s investigation, with an official from trade union Unison describing the investigation as a “witch hunt” designed to identify the whistleblower who revealed the blunders. Read full story Source: The Independent, 17 January 2020
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Content ArticlePeter Duffy, consultant surgeon writes of his 35 years of experience on the front-line of the NHS. Charting his career pathway from auxiliary nurse and unskilled operating theatre orderly, he takes us through his progress to senior consultant surgeon and head of department. In 2015, and after blowing the whistle on a series of near misses, he reluctantly reported an avoidable death, cover-up and ongoing surgical risk-taking to the Care Quality Commission. Within months he was out of work and unemployed. Via avoidable deaths and errors, cover-ups, misuse of public funds, bullying, abuse and victimisation the author charts out in searing detail his demotion, punishments and exile from both family and NHS and the subsequent brutal legal process that followed his illegal dismissal.
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Content Article
Whistleblowers’ support scheme
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Whistle blowing
The Whistleblowers' support scheme helps current and former NHS workers who are having difficulty finding suitable employment in the NHS as a result of raising a concern in the public interest. It offers tailored support to help participants develop the skills and confidence needed to remain in or get back into employment. This could include career coaching, advice, CV writing and interview skill practice and work shadowing and work placements. The NHS Improvement web page outlines the eligibility criteria and application form.- Posted
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News Article
Hospital in bullying claims did not monitor at-risk patients
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A hospital accused of bullying its staff is facing new claims that it failed to act on a leading doctor’s warning about a potentially fatal failure to monitor vulnerable patients, the Guardian newspaper can reveal. Dr Jonathan Boyle, the UK’s top vascular surgeon, had warned West Suffolk NHS trust that patients at risk of dying from burst aneurysms were not being safely monitored. An IT glitch meant that patients were not followed up to see how soon they would need potentially life-saving surgery. A doctor at the trust, however, says it initially repeatedly refused to take any action, raising further questions about its management. The trust initially suggested the problem was the result of senior doctors not keeping up with emails, but later accepted its IT systems were at fault. The hospital was forced to recognise that patients were potentially put at risk and took action only after a whistleblower alerted the NHS regulator. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 5 January 2020 -
Content Article
All Party Parliamentary Group for Whistleblowing
Claire Cox posted an article in Whistle blowing
A Whistleblower is defined as "a person who exposes any kind of information or activity that is deemed illegal, unethical, or not correct within an organization that is either private or public". These individuals are vulnerable to retaliation for their actions and whilst there are laws in place purposed to protect them, sometimes the laws are not adequate or effective in their practical application. The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Whistleblowers was set up with the aim to provide stronger protection for whistleblowers. This website provides further information on the APPG, -
Content ArticleMuch policy focus has been afforded to the role of 'whistleblowers' in raising concerns about quality and safety of patient care in healthcare settings. However, most opportunities for personnel to identify and act on these concerns are likely to occur much further upstream, in the day-to-day mundane interactions of everyday work. Using qualitative data from over 900 hours of ethnographic observation and 98 interviews across 19 English intensive care units (ICUs), the authors of this paper, published in Social Science & Medicine, studied how personnel gave voice to concerns about patient safety or poor practice.
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Content ArticleIn this article, published by the British Journal of Anaesthesia, the author looks at the impact a culture of blame can have upon NHS staff, including suicide, and offers recommendations for what should change.
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Content ArticleThe objective of this research paper, published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, was to investigate doctors’ intentions to raise a patient safety concern by applying the socio-psychological model ‘Theory of Planned Behaviour’.
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Content ArticleThe Commission was established in February 2013 by the charity Public Concern at Work (PCaW) to examine the effectiveness of existing arrangements for workplace whistleblowing in the UK and to make recommendations for change. Whistleblowing is the raising of a concern, either within the workplace or externally, about a danger, risk, malpractice or wrongdoing which affects others. In March 2013 the Commission issued a consultation document. It received 142 responses. Those responding included a broad mix of employers, lawyers, academics, trade unions, politicians and whistleblowers. This report represents the unanimous view of the Commissioners taking into account this material and reports on the effectiveness of existing arrangements for workplace whistleblowing in the UK.
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Content ArticleRevised expectations of boards and board members in relation to Freedom to Speak Up plus supplementary resources and a self-review tool.
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Content ArticleThis Review was set up in response to continuing disquiet about the way NHS organisations deal with concerns raised by NHS staff and the treatment of some of those who have spoken up. The aim of the Review was to provide advice and recommendations to ensure that NHS staff in England feel it is safe to raise concerns, confident that they will be listened to and the concerns will be acted upon.
