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Found 317 results
  1. News Article
    Large numbers of midwives report being left feeling undervalued and afraid to speak up due to bullying and widespread staffing shortages, which some say is putting mothers’ and babies’ lives at risk, according to a new publication shared with HSJ. The Say No to Bullying in Midwifery report comprises hundreds of accounts, ranging from students, newly qualified and senior midwives, heads of midwifery, maternity support workers and more. It aims to publicise and share concerns they have raised online. The report said: “Midwives have described their experiences of toxic cultures within their workplaces, with cliques, preferential treatment, unfounded allegations and poor working conditions leading to a negative impact on their health and wellbeing, including suicide attempts and midwives leaving their job or profession. Read full story Source: HSJ, 13 November 2023 Order a copy of the report
  2. Content Article
    *Trigger warning: This report contains accounts of bullying behaviours and consequences and may trigger those who have experiences of bullying. The Say No to Bullying in Midwifery report comprises hundreds of accounts, ranging from students, newly qualified and senior midwives, heads of midwifery, maternity support workers and more. It aims to publicise and share concerns they have raised online. In the numerous accounts shared all areas of the system from CQC, CEO, HR, midwifery management, universities and the unions are described as being complicit, inadequate, disinterested and even corrupt. Accounts also refer to: Unsafe work environments Exit interviews not being performed, recorded or acted upon Staff not being valued Whistle-blowers being demonised until they leave Health and safety issues and truly evidence-based practice ignored with no lessons learned. To order your copy, follow the link below.
  3. Content Article
    In this opinion piece, BMJ journalist Clare Dyer examines how the healthcare system is grappling with the question of how Lucy Letby was allowed to get away with killing babies in plain sight for so long. She looks at culture and governance issues that meant that concerns raised by consultants were not appropriately acted on.
  4. News Article
    Dr Martyn Pitman claimed retaliatory victimisation after raising morale concerns but tribunal says it was his manner that cost him his job. A doctor has said raising whistleblowing concerns about maternity care at his hospital “cost me very dearly” after he lost his employment tribunal. Consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Martyn Pitman was dismissed earlier this year from his job at the Royal Hampshire county hospital (RHCH) in Winchester, where he had worked for 20 years. He told the Southampton tribunal, which concluded earlier this month, that he had been “subjected to brutal retaliatory victimisation” after exercising his rights under the Public Interest Disclosure Act. A tribunal judgment released on Friday said there had been “unanimous” agreement that the arguments behind the whistleblowing claim “fail and are dismissed”. Read full story Source: Guardian, 29 October 2023
  5. Content Article
    "With every patient safety inquiry the lessons are the same. We owe the families affected by these repeated failures meaningful organisational change." Says Juliet Dobson, in this Editorial for the BMJ.
  6. News Article
    An NHS hospital has been accused of posing a continuing risk to patients by “covering up” leadership failures, including not properly investigating the deaths of two babies. Dr Max Mclean, chairman of Bradford Teaching Hospitals trust, has quit in protest at the conduct of the trust’s chief executive, Professor Mel Pickup, after no action was taken over serious concerns about her performance. In a blistering resignation letter, Mclean said he “cannot, in good conscience, work with a CEO who has fallen so short of the standards expected of her role that there is a genuine safety risk to patients and colleagues”. He is calling for senior national NHS figures to establish new leadership at the trust, and has written to the head of NHS England to share his concerns about Pickup, who has been in post since 2019. Mclean told The Times there were parallels with the Lucy Letby scandal, when management ignored the concerns of whistleblowers. “Patients are at risk, babies are at risk, and there could be avoidable deaths unless there is a change of leadership,” he said. The former detective chief superintendent who has chaired the trust since 2019, raised nine serious issues about Pickup’s performance, which he said were confirmed by an independent investigation that concluded last month. However, the trust’s board met on October 2 and decided there would be no further action against Pickup, leaving Mclean with “no option” but to resign and speak publicly. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 10 October 2023
  7. News Article
    A trust pressured into commissioning an external review of dozens of suicides faces fresh criticism and questions about the probe’s credibility after it emerged the investigation will not investigate each case but instead look to ‘identify themes’. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust originally said it would carry out the review of more than 60 patient suicides internally. But following criticism, it U-turned on this decision and last month agreed to an externally-led process. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ
  8. News Article
    A mental health provider has apologised after telling a whistleblower he was being declined treatment due to an employment tribunal he had brought against a neighbouring trust. Andrew Wardley was among a group of staff who raised concerns over a major research project at The Christie, a prominent cancer trust in Greater Manchester. Dr Wardley, a leading oncologist, has claimed he was sidelined and effectively bullied out after raising legitimate concerns. He has brought an employment tribunal against the specialist trust. The ongoing case has caused him severe stress and anxiety, prompting him to seek psychological treatment with South West Yorkshire Partnership Foundation Trust, which runs services near his home in Huddersfield. He told HSJ an initial phone conversation with trust staff had been positive and ended with an agreement he would benefit from treatment with the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies team. But he subsequently received a letter from the trust, which said: “Given the ongoing litigation IAPT would not be in a position to offer any therapy". Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 20 September 2023
  9. Content Article
    In this opinion piece for the BMJ, Rammya Mathew talks about the limits of a no blame culture in identifying where harm is being caused by a clinician. "The Letby case is an extreme example of the shortcomings of a “no blame” culture. When things go wrong we’re encouraged to always support staff and ensure that no one feels implicated. It’s as though only systems and processes can be criticised, and discussing the possibility of individual accountability is considered “off grounds.”
  10. News Article
    Former police officers, including a murder detective, have been hired by NHS hospitals in a move that campaigners have warned risks discouraging whistleblowers. The Sunday Telegraph has revealted that retired officers have been employed by a trust currently under scrutiny for its treatment of doctors who raise patient safety concerns. One of them has taken up a patient safety incident investigator role worth up to £57,349 a year. Meanwhile a senior detective has been called into multiple trusts on an ad hoc basis to conduct investigations. Last night a leading patient group called on the NHS to be transparent about exactly how such personnel are being used, “given the ongoing concerns about how such roles interact with whistleblowers”. Paul Whiteing, chief executive of the charity Action Against Medical Accidents (AvMA), said: “We at AvMA welcome any steps taken by Trusts to professionalise the investigation of patient safety incidents. This is long overdue. “But given the on-going concerns about how such roles interact with whistleblowers, to maintain trust and confidence of all of the staff, trusts need to be clear, open and transparent about why they are making such appointments and the role and duties of those they employ to fulfil them, whatever their backgrounds.” Campaigners have warned that some NHS trusts deliberately seek to conflate patient safety issues with staff workplace investigations. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 30 September 2023
  11. Content Article
    This post is a transcript of an interview on Times Radio Breakfast on 7 September 2023 in which Dr Jane Somerville, Emeritus professor of cardiology at Imperial College, was asked if the Lucy Letby case has uncovered a problem of the difficulties doctors have of voicing their concerns in hospitals. In the interview, Dr Somerville refers to systemic persecution of NHS staff who speak up about patient safety. She goes on to identify the key issues of power; cover-up culture; suppression of complaints/concerns; career-ending reprisals against staff who speak up; and the almost universal failure of employment tribunals to protect whistleblowers. 
  12. News Article
    A consultant obstetrician has claimed he was sacked from his hospital for raising whistleblowing concerns about patient safety over fears they would cause “reputational damage”. Martyn Pitman told an employment tribunal in Southampton that managers dismissed his concerns and he was “subjected to brutal retaliatory victimisation” after he criticised senior midwife colleagues. He said: “On a daily basis there was evidence of deteriorating standards of care. We were certain that the situation posed a direct threat to both patients’ safety and staff wellbeing. Concern was expressed that there was a genuine risk that we could start to see avoidable patient disasters.” Rather than addressing these, Pitman said the trust had considered it “the path of least resistance to take out [the] whistleblower”. Pitman was dismissed this year from his job at the Royal Hampshire County hospital (RHCH) in Winchester, where he had worked as a consultant for 20 years. He is claiming he suffered a detriment due to exercising rights under the Public Interest Disclosure Act. He said he “fought against [an] absolute barrage of completely unprofessional assaults on me” after he raised concerns about foetal monitoring problems that resulted in the death of a baby and the delivery of another with severe cerebral palsy. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 26 September 2023
  13. Content Article
    In this opinion piece for the BMJ, Partha Kar, NHS England National Specialty Advisor for Diabetes, shares his observations on why leaders fail to speak out on things that clearly aren't good for patient care. He identifies five key reasons: Keeping the job Fear Rhetoric about 'the bigger picture' The idea that 'I'll be rewarded' Genuine belief that the issue isn't real Partha highlights that speaking up about issues needs to become the norm if we are to see a culture shift in healthcare. Leaders need to be at the forefront of this, using their privilege to bring about change.
  14. News Article
    An ambulance trust has been accused of acting like a “criminal gang” and lying to dead patients’ families by an employee who repeatedly warned about paramedics’ mistakes being covered up. Paul Calvert, a coroner’s officer whose job was to produce reports on deaths, tried to raise concerns about managers at the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) for three years before walking out last year on the verge of a breakdown. “My life was being made a misery,” said Calvert, who was previously a detective with Northumbria police. “They were basically like a criminal gang. I had tried everything I could to warn the proper authorities about how the service was destroying and concealing evidence meant for the coroner. I spoke to my managers, to human resources, to external auditors. I even made disclosures to the Care Quality Commission and Northumbria police. Nothing was done about it.” Despite their denials of a large-scale cover-up of mistakes, the NEAS this year offered Calvert £41,000 as part of a non-disclosure agreement it asked him to sign. One of the clauses meant destroying all the evidence he had collected. Another tried to stop him making any further disclosures to police. Reports and witness statements from ambulance staff were not being disclosed to the coroner “on a daily basis”, according to Calvert, amounting to key pieces of evidence relating to deaths being hidden from the public. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 29 May 2022
  15. News Article
    The government is to investigate claims an ambulance service covered up details of the deaths of patients following mistakes by paramedics. It follows the Sunday Times report that North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) withheld information from coroners. Labour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting described the alleged cover-up as "a national disgrace". Health minister Maria Caulfield said she was "horrified" and there would be a further investigation. The newspaper reported that concerns were raised about more than 90 cases and whistleblowers believed NEAS had prevented full disclosure to relatives of people who died in 2018 and 2019. Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Streeting asked why the regulator - the Care Quality Commission (CQC) - had failed to take action. Ms Caulfield said that while both the NEAS and the CQC had both reviewed the allegations, further investigation was required. The minister said non-disclosure agreements have "no place in the NHS", adding: "Reputation management is never more important than patient safety." Read full story Source: BBC News, 23 May 2022
  16. News Article
    Quinn Evie Beadle died in 2018. Her parents later found out that the “kind, caring” 17-year-old had been failed by a paramedic at the scene of her death — and that the ambulance service altered documents to try to stop them finding out the truth. The teenager, who dreamt of becoming a medic but suffered poor mental health, was found after she hanged herself near her home in Shildon, Co Durham, on the evening of 9 December 2018. The paramedic who attended the scene made basic mistakes, and made no effort to clear her airway or continue with basic life support — despite the fact her heart was still active. But instead of attempting to learn lessons, bosses at the North East Ambulance Trust (NEAS) set out to prevent the family learning what happened. They changed a key witness statement given to the coroner at her first inquest, removing references to mistakes the paramedic had made and inserting the claim that any life support offered would “not have had a positive outcome”. They also withheld from the coroner a key piece of evidence — a reading from a heart monitor — which demonstrated Quinn’s heart activity. It is thought Quinn’s death could be one of more than 90 cases in the past three years in which the NEAS failed to provide families with the whole truth about how their relatives died. Senior managers repeatedly withheld key evidence from coroners about deaths linked to service failures, an internal report shows. In some cases, bosses doctored or suppressed evidence to cover up failures by staff. An independent report into a small number of the cases, including Quinn’s, raised by whistleblowers found that, as in her case, statements were changed or suppressed and pieces of key evidence not disclosed. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Sunday Times, 22 May 2022
  17. News Article
    A former medical director on the Isle of Man, who lost her job when she questioned decisions made on the island during the COVID-19 pandemic, has won her case for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal. The hearing, which began in January, heard how Dr Rosalind Ranson was victimised and dismissed from her role after making 'protected disclosures' as part of her efforts to persuade the Manx Government to deviate from Public Health England (PHE) advice in the early stages of the pandemic. Dr Ranson, who had extensive experience as a GP and as a senior medical leader in the NHS in England, was appointed to her post as the island's most senior doctor in January 2020 with the aim of tackling what she identified as a disillusioned medical workforce, failings in management, and a bullying culture. She was soon called on to provide expert medical advice and guidance on how the Isle of Man’s health system should respond to the spread of COVID-19. In March, Dr Ranson channelled concerns from the island's doctors that the advice from PHE was flawed, and that a more robust approach should be taken to stem the spread of SARS-CoV-2. That included closing the island’s borders – a move that was initially ignored. Dr Ranson became concerned that her medical advice was not being heeded and that it might not be being passed on to ministers by the then Chief Executive of the Isle of Man’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Kathryn Magson, who was not medically qualified. The tribunal heard that because Dr Ranson had "blown the whistle" when she spoke out, she was sidelined and eventually dismissed unfairly. Read full story Source: Medscape, 11 May 2022
  18. News Article
    A trust chief who blew the whistle on her predecessor’s ‘aggressive’ behaviour and lack of interest in patient safety says it was the hardest thing she has had to do in her career. Janelle Holmes, who is now chief executive of Wirral University Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust, was among four Wirral University Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust senior executives who wrote to regulators in 2017 about the behaviour of the trust’s then CEO David Allison. They said he would react with “dismay and aggression” to concerns being raised about service quality, and staff were afraid to speak up as a result. The intervention led to Mr Allison’s departure and a subsequent independent investigation found “deep systemic cultural issues”. Mr Allison always denied his behaviour was inappropriate. In an interview with HSJ, Ms Holmes talked of the difficulties in taking those actions, and the subsequent efforts to overhaul the trust’s culture. She said: “From a personal integrity perspective, it was the right thing to do…and I [also] felt I had a personal responsibility to make it right afterwards. “But yes, it was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do.” She said: “I remember watching Sir David Dalton (the ex-Salford CEO) probably more than 10 years ago… say ‘we are harming patients’.. it was like ’you can’t say that’. “But actually [there was a] complete sea change and [it became] an organisation where [speaking out] was the right thing to do. That’s the only way you can ensure you’re delivering good quality high standard services. If you’re acknowledging mistakes happen, you’re learning from them, you’re correcting things… I think that then starts to shape how our clinicians and staff feel. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 12 May 2022
  19. News Article
    The Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) has expressed its support for the Whistleblowing Bill launched in Parliament last week, with its first reading in the House of Commons by Mary Robinson MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Whistleblowing. DAUK urged people to tweet their MP to show their support for the Bill. DAUK Chair Dr Jenny Vaughan said: "Healthcare staff need to be able raise patient safety issues all of the time. We’re trained to do that, expect it, point this out as best we can. But sometimes poor safety arises because of the way we are told to work. Then, it can be just as hard for staff to speak up as it is for anyone else, because we can also be threatened, sanctioned, isolated, ignored and bullied. "Blowing the whistle for us means saving lives, in the end. But we stand to lose as much as anyone. DAUK has supported many doctors who have been made to suffer because they spoke out, and there are many more who feel they should but are afraid to. That is why this Bill is so important. For all staff within healthcare. And most of all, for patients - the public. Stopping the greater harm for the greater good.” The most important changes in the private members bill, led by Baroness Kramer would: Require disclosures to be acted upon and whistleblowers protected. Provide criminal and civil penalties for organisations and individuals failing to do so. Establish a fully independent parliamentary body on whistleblowing, and provide easy access to redress. Read full story Source: Medscape UK, 26 April 2022
  20. News Article
    A trust board has backed the medical director who oversaw the dismissal of a whistleblower in a case linked to patient deaths. Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust told HSJ John Knighton had the full support of the organisation when asked if he faced any censure over the wrongful dismissal of a consultant who raised the alarm about a surgical technique. Jasna Macanovic last month won her employment tribunal against the trust with the judge calling its conduct “very one-sided, reflecting a determination to remove [her] as the source of the problem”. The judgment found that the disciplinary process Dr Knighton oversaw was “a foregone conclusion” and as such had broken employment rules. The nephrologist was twice offered the opportunity to resign with a good reference, once during her disciplinary hearing and again on the day the outcome of that hearing was delivered. The trust told HSJ nothing in the judgment suggested Dr Knighton should face any action about his conduct and none had been taken. It said there were no reasons to doubt his credibility or probity. The trust did not respond when asked if any apology had been offered to Dr Macanovic. A spokesperson said: “We are committed to supporting colleagues raising concerns, so they are treated fairly with compassion and respect.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 April 2022
  21. News Article
    Criticism of NHS managers over the treatment of whistleblowers has been reignited by Donna Ockenden’s damning review of maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust. Her findings come seven years after the “Freedom to speak up?” report from Sir Robert Francis QC, which found that NHS staff feared repercussions if they blew the whistle on poor practice. He recommended reforms to change the culture and support whistleblowers. The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 makes it unlawful to subject workers to negative treatment or dismiss them because they have raised a whistleblowing concern, known as a “protected disclosure”. But critics say little has changed since the Francis review. According to Protect, a whistleblowing charity, 64% of those contacting it for advice said that they had been victimised, dismissed or forced to resign. Shazia Khan, founding partner at Cole Khan Solicitors, says that instead of being afforded protection, whistleblowers are “targeted as a form of retaliation by trust senior management and disciplined on trumped up charges to shut them down”. Those seeking to vindicate their rights before an employment tribunal, Khan adds, will often be “priced out of justice” by well-resourced NHS trust lawyers who at public expense “deploy a menu of tactics” to defend cases. When Peter Duffy, a consultant urologist at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation NHS Trust, reported on allegedly unsafe practices by colleagues in 2016, he was demoted, falsely accused of financial irregularities, and threatened with a six-figure adverse costs order by Capsticks, the hospital’s law firm. “All my witnesses dropped out after the medical hierarchy told them that the department might be dissolved if the case went badly,” Duffy says, which meant there was no one to rebut the trust’s evidence. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 7 April 2022
  22. News Article
    A whistleblower who worked at a hospital trust where hundreds of babies died or were left brain-damaged says there was "a climate of fear" among staff who tried to report concerns. Bernie Bentick was a consultant obstetrician at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust for almost 30 years. "In Shrewsbury and Telford there was a climate of fear where staff felt unable to speak up because of risk of victimisation," Mr Bentick said. "Clearly, when a baby or a mother dies, it's extremely traumatic for everybody concerned. "Sadly, the mechanisms for trying to prevent recurrence weren't sufficient for a number of factors. "Resources and the institutionalised bullying and blame culture was a large part of that." More than 1,800 cases of potentially avoidable harm have been reviewed by the inquiry. Most occurred between 2000 and 2019. Mr Bentick worked at the Trust until 2020. He said from 2009 onwards, he was raising concerns with managers. "I believe there were significant issues which promoted risk because of principally understaffing and the culture," he said. He also accuses hospital bosses of prioritising activity - the number of patients seen and procedures performed - over patient safety. "I believe that the senior management were mostly concerned with activity rather than safety - and until safety is on a par with clinical activity, I don’t see how the situation is going to be resolved," he said. Read full story Source: Sky News, 27 March 2022
  23. News Article
    The chief executive of one of England’s most prestigious private hospitals has lost her employment tribunal claim that she was dismissed for whistle blowing over patient safety issues. Aida Yousefi ran the Portland Hospital in central London from January 2017 until her dismissal in December 2019 on two counts of gross misconduct. She was also in charge of The Harley Street Clinic and a specialist cancer centre. Ms Yousefi’s argument that she was removed after raising concerns about the patient safety was rejected by central London employment tribunal in a judgment published last week. The judge instead ruled that while other senior staff had raised patient safety concerns over cost-cutting, there was no evidence that Ms Yousefi had done so. In their judgment the tribunal panel said: “In oral evidence the claimant further accepted that, as CQC-registered manager, if patient safety concerns were not being dealt with she should have raised it with CQC. She did not do so at any point during her employment.” Staffing concerns were raised by The Harley Street Centre chief nursing officer Claire Champion and others. However, the tribunal heard evidence that doing so could be frowned upon by senior management at HCA International. The tribunal was shown an email from then vice president of financial operations at THSC and the Portland Enda O’Meara saying “Frankly – we are starting to piss some very senior people off in appearing that we can’t [make savings]. We can’t always cite patient safety. Because the response will always be other facilities are doing it”. Another email from Mr O’Meara said: “Please don’t cite ’patient safety’ unless you truly believe it to be the case. This term is particularly sensitive and nothing winds them up more”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 28 March 2022
  24. News Article
    A senior medic has won a whistleblowing case after judges ruled she was dismissed after raising concerns about a new procedure her department was using. An employment tribunal found consultant nephrologist Jasna Macanovic was fired from Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust in March 2018 after telling bosses a dialysis technique called “buttonholing”, which had been “championed” there, was potentially dangerous. The trust’s case was that the way she had gone about raising concerns had made for an untenable working environment in the Wessex Kidney Centre. The process saw a Care Quality Commission complaint, an independent investigation and multiple referrals to the General Medical Council. Employment Judge Fowell said: “The plain fact is that after over twenty years of excellent service in the NHS, Dr Macanovic was dismissed from her post shortly after raising a series of protected disclosures about this one issue. It is no answer to a claim of whistleblowing to say that feelings ran so high that working relationships broke down completely, and so the whistleblower had to be dismissed.” Dr Macanovic resigned from the regional renal transplant team in July 2016 when she discovered two incidents had occurred that “had not been reported by either surgeon” and felt that one of the surgeons had misled the medical director over the issue, the tribunal heard. In an email sent after the resignation meeting, Dr Macanovic said the practice was considered inappropriate by the vast majority of experts in the field and that no other renal unit in England was using it. The case exposes some worrying governance, both within the trust and between it and the Care Quality Commission, with which the issues were raised in 2016. When the CQC asked the trust for more information the unit’s clinical director responded that in his view that the deaths and infections were not due to the buttonholing. The CQC made no further enquiries and wrote back saying “they were satisfied that there were no safety concerns and that appropriate governance had been followed”. Read full story Source: HSJ, 24 March 2022
  25. News Article
    NHS England is trying to force a prestigious cancer trust to publicly apologise to a group of whistleblowers, after being ‘shocked’ by the way it responded to a review into their concerns. As HSJ reported in January, an external review into The Christie Foundation Trust supported multiple concerns which had been raised by staff about a major research project with pharma giant Roche. The review had also noted how 20 current and former employees, some of whom were “long-standing, loyal, senior staff”, had described bullying behaviours and felt they had suffered detriment because they spoke out. In response to the review, trust chair Christine Outram and chief executive Roger Spencer issued a bullish report listing numerous “inaccuracies” and characterised the concerns as being limited to a “small number of staff who are dissatisfied or aggrieved”. It did not thank the staff for raising the issues, nor apologise for the experiences they had. However, HSJ has now learned that NHSE is trying to ensure the trust issues a public apology. At a meeting with some of the whistleblowers on 11 February, David Levy, medical director for NHSE North West, said he was “shocked” and “frankly a bit angry” at the trust’s response, saying it reflected badly on the organisation, HSJ understands. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 9 March 2022
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