NHS whistleblowers call for better protection

The launch of Patients First will be led by Dr Kim Holt, the paediatrician who blew the whistle on serious problems at Great Ormond Street Hospital’s Haringey clinic. This was the same clinic where staff failed to notice Baby Peter’s injuries two days before he died.

Dr Holt was subsequently placed on special leave and was only reinstated under new hospital management after a long battle. At one point she was offered £120,000 gagging clause which she refused.

Speaking to Channel 4 News ahead of the launch, Dr Holt said too many people’s lives were destroyed by the failure of NHS trusts to follow the correct procedures when a member of staff highlighted problems.

She also condemned the use of “gagging orders” or compromise agreements which prevent the doctor, nurse or other healthcare worker from discussing their case. This, Dr Holt, said meant lessons could not be learned.

More transparency

The Patients First campaign will lobby the government to create policies and laws to make the NHS more transparent and accountable.

This will include calling for compromise agreements to be used only in exceptional circumstances and for there to be a legal duty to act on concerns from staff and that if there is failure to do this then there must be “serious consequences”.

It is unclear how many whistleblowing cases there are although this year alone there have been 202 calls from healthcare workers to the helpline run by Public Concern at Work. One of the issues Patients First will highlight is the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, which was meant to protect patients but is considered to have failed.

They are also sceptical about plans by the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley to tighten up the whistleblowing policy by incorporating it into the NHS constitution next year. Dr Holt said that it had not legal foundation and so could not be challenged.

Moonlighting warning

Also at the launch will be Sharmila Chowdhury, a radiology service manager who was sacked by Ealing Hospital NHS Trust after she had repeatedly warned that senior doctors were moonlighting at a private hospital while being paid to diagnose NHS patients.

Counter-allegations were made against Ms Chowdhury of fraud which were never proved. At an employment tribunal interim hearing last year the judge ordered the trust to reinstate Ms Chowdhury’s full salary. However, the trust has not reinstated her.

In a statement to Channel 4 News the trust said: “The individual raised a number of concerns regarding staff at the Trust that were fully investigated and found to be unsubstantiated.”

What the statement does not address is the treatment Ms Chowdhury faced for having raised the matter of the consultants’ working practices. She told Channel 4 News that despite having won her tribunal, she does not have a job, she faces losing her home and she currently has legal bills of about £120,000.

Marched off the premises

Speaking about the moment she was told she was being sacked, Ms Chowdhury said it was humiliating. “I was marched off the premises. I managed 60 staff in the department and nobody could understand what was going on,” she said.

“They couldn’t tell me the details, except they said they believed I had committed fraud and I said well what is it? In fact one of the HR managers said well if you’ve done nothing wrong then you have nothing to worry about. Well this is the NHS and here we are two years later, we have everything to worry about.”

The campaign will also announce tomorrow that it is to launch legal action against Ealing Hospital NHS Trust and South London Healthcare NHS Trust, which is at the centre of another whistleblwoing case.

The law firm has asked both Trusts to provide a range of evidence in relation to their policies on whistleblowing, including what steps they have taken in the last 12 months to “audit, review and refresh” their approach to whistleblowing, as required by Department of Health guidance.