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Showing results for tags 'Whistleblowing'.
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News Article
Trust must pay £200k to whistleblower it subjected to ‘campaign of harassment’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A trust that sacked a whistleblower who had warned them about potential patient harm from a new procedure has been told to pay her more than £200,000. Jasna Macanovic won her case against Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust last year after the employment tribunal found board members had broken employment rules, including by telling her she would get a good reference if she agreed to quietly resign. Earlier this month, an employment tribunal judgment to establish the compensation she was owed said the trust had subjected Dr Macanovic to “a campaign of harassment” and rejected Portsm- Posted
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News Article
Consultants who blew the whistle at a major teaching trust have raised “grave concerns” about the impartiality of three reviews into the safety and bullying allegations they made. Last month, Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board announced three investigations into University Hospitals Birmingham, following worries about bullying and poor workplace culture. Former trust consultants Manos Nikolousis, John Watkinson and Tristan Reuser have now written to the cross-party reference group holding the investigations to account. Their letter, seen by HSJ, outlines their concerns abo- Posted
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News Article
NHS whistleblower wins £500,000 for unfair dismissal
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A “commended” NHS nurse has been awarded nearly £500,000 for being wrongly sacked after she claimed that high workloads led to a patient’s death. Linda Fairhall, 62, a 44-year veteran of the health service, said she made 13 separate pleas to bosses warning that her colleagues were overburdened, but she was ignored each time. Fairhal told officials at the University Hospital of North Tees and Hartlepool that she was worried about a recently imposed policy that obliged nurses to monitor patients who took prescribed medicines and maintained that it led to nurses having to conduct 1,000- Posted
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News Article
CQC brings in whistleblowing gurus to boost ‘independence and credibility’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has hired two independent whistleblowing champions, Joy Warmington and Arpita Dutt, to oversee a major review of how it listens to concerns. The CQC previously announced it had appointed Zoe Leventhal KC, of Matrix Chambers, to lead the first phase of the review, which is considering how the CQC handled protected disclosures made by Shyam Kumar, an orthopaedic surgeon at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation Trust, and whether ethnicity “played any part in the management of those disclosures”. On Friday it issued details of the second phas- Posted
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Content Article
In 2015 the Government introduced a Freedom to Speak Up Guardian and a system of Local Speak Up Guardians in response to the recommendations made by Sir Robert Frances following the scandal at Mid Staffordshire. From the outset, this system has attracted significant criticism and the APPG has heard from whistleblowers who have been failed by local guardians sharing their experiences that included the disclosure of their identity to hospital management and boards – resulting in retaliation. The APPG has also heard from Local Guardians who were not supported and themselves the target of ret- Posted
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News Article
The Birmingham MP Preet Gill has called on the UK health secretary to launch a major public inquiry into allegations that a bullying and a toxic culture is risking patient safety at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB). The MP for Edgbaston, where UHB is based, said she had received complaints from staff alleging elderly patients had been left on beds in corridors outside wards due to mismanagement, and medics were discouraged from speaking out about problems. In a letter to Steve Barclay, seen by the Guardian, Gill said: “I have been inundated by messages from UHB staff, past and p- Posted
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News Article
Two clinicians who say they lost their jobs at Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust after raising patient safety concerns claim the trust’s legal team brought a five-figure costs threat against them to prevent witnesses from giving evidence in a tribunal. The threat of costs liability, intended to bring the case to a halt, was made halfway through the hearing – less than 48 hours before witnesses for the trust were due to give evidence. One of the claims put forward at the tribunal hearing was that the trust had destroyed crucial evidence by deleting the email account of a forme- Posted
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News Article
Climate of fear putting patients at risk, say doctors
Patient-Safety-Learning posted a news article in News
Whistleblowers at one of England's worst performing hospital trusts have said a climate of fear among staff is putting patients at risk. Former and current clinicians at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Trust allege they were punished by management for raising safety concerns, a BBC Newsnight investigation found. One insider said the trust was "a bit like the mafia." The trust said it took "patient safety very seriously." It said it had a "high reporting culture of incidents" to ensure accountability and learning. Staff concerns included a dangerous shortage of nurses a- Posted
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News Article
Doctors raise safety fears at Birmingham hospitals
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Whistleblowers at one of England's worst performing hospital trusts have said a climate of fear among staff is putting patients at risk. Former and current clinicians at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Trust allege they were punished by management for raising safety concerns, a BBC Newsnight investigation found. One insider said the trust was "a bit like the mafia". The trust said it took "patient safety very seriously". It said it had a "high reporting culture of incidents" to ensure accountability and learning. Staff concerns included a dangerous shortage of nur- Posted
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News Article
Claims of sleeping staff and bullying on ward
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Whistle-blowers have described neglect, patient-on-patient assault and staff who bully colleagues and sleep on the job at a troubled mental health ward. Sources told a BBC investigation that a patient of 25-bed, mixed-gender Hill Crest Ward in Redditch, Worcestershire, suffered a broken jaw during one clash. They also claimed three nurses were "forced out" amid bullying behaviour. The NHS trust that runs Hill Crest said it believed changes there were having a positive impact. Accounts have been corroborated via five independent sources to whom the BBC spoke. They follow rep- Posted
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News Article
West Lane Hospital: Staff concerns 'ignored' at Middlesbrough site
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A whistleblower at a mental health trust criticised over the deaths of three teenagers has said bosses ignored workers when they raised concerns. Christie Harnett and Nadia Sharif, both 17, and Emily Moore, 18, who were friends, all took their own lives within eight months of each other. The whistleblower said agency workers fell asleep on duty at Middlesbrough's West Lane Hospital and staff struggled "to keep children alive". The trust has apologised for failings. Reports into the women's care found 120 failings at Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV), wh- Posted
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News Article
Regulator investigates lawyers acting for NHS trust over ‘gagging’ clauses
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Lawyers acting for an NHS trust are being investigated over “gagging” clauses proposed in a settlement agreement with a whistleblower who raised concerns that mistakes by paramedics in the deaths of patients were being covered up. In June, the then health secretary, Sajid Javid, announced an NHS review into “tragic failings” by North East Ambulance Service after Paul Calvert went public with claims that reports into deaths were doctored to cover up failings by staff. The Guardian has learned that NEAS’s lawyers, Ward Hadaway, are also under scrutiny – by the Solicitors Regulation Aut- Posted
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News Article
Children say they were "treated like animals" and left traumatised as part of a decade of “systemic abuse” by a group of mental health hospitals, an investigation by The Independent and Sky News has found. The Department of Health and Social Care has now launched a probe into the allegations of 22 young women who were patients in units run by The Huntercombe Group, which has run at least six children’s mental health hospitals, between 2012 and this year. They say they suffered treatment including the use of “painful” restraints and being held down for hours by male nurses, being stop- Posted
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News Article
Leadership review launched at ‘outstanding’ trust
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The Care Quality Commission has launched a review of leadership at an “outstanding”-rated specialist trust, after receiving multiple concerns from whistleblowers. The regulator is understood to have made an unannounced visit to The Christie Foundation Trust within the last week to inspect its medical services. The review will also cover the trust’s overall leadership. HSJ understands the review is, at least, partly in response to the regulator receiving a number of concerns from whistleblowers about the trust’s leadership culture and behaviour of senior staff. It comes after the- Posted
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News Article
Peter Duffy warned that there is a growing risk of electronic patient records and NHS staff communications being exposed to tampering efforts in disputes with managers and executives. The surgeon, who now practices on the Isle of Man, made the comments during talks given in September – to the Association for Perioperative Practice (AfPP) and at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI) in Dublin. He told audiences that “there is increasing potential for electronic tampering” of NHS IT records, holding serious implications for patient safety reporting and disputes with government and he- Posted
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News Article
Deaths inquiry will exclude dozens of concerning cases, says whistleblower
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An inquiry into alleged efforts to cover up care failings at an ambulance trust has been criticised by a key whistleblower for being too limited in scope. NHS England recently commissioned the inquiry into North East Ambulance Service, which has been accused of withholding key details from coroners in a number of deaths. Whistleblowers have raised concerns about disclosure in more than 90 cases. Draft terms of reference for the review, seen by HSJ, say it will examine cases which occurred over a 12-month period up until December 2019. Paul Calvert, a coroners’ officer at NEAS wh- Posted
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News Article
Number of NHSE whistleblowers tripled in 2021-22
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The number of concerns reported by NHS England staff through the freedom to speak up process almost tripled last year, the organisation’s latest board papers have revealed. There were 152 cases received by the internal freedom to speak up guardians in 2021-22 compared to 56 in 2020-21. This year 54 cases were received in quarter three alone. The most common concerns are related to allegations of bullying and harassment. These accounted for nearly 40% of the total. People and team management concerns accounted for a third of FTSU cases. Within the latter, there were sub-themes of brea- Posted
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