Employees to be offered greater protection and new jobs
Sir Robert Francis QC who is leading the inquiry into whistleblowing in the NHS, has urged employees to come forward with their experiences.
The ‘Freedom to Speak Up’ review will look at how staff can be supported to raise their concerns, and was launched after a series of prominent whistleblowing cases in recent years.
Francis said he hoped to tackle the “culture of denial and fear” in parts of the NHS and said the current “closed ranks culture” was harming employees’ ability to do their jobs and provide great patient care.
He urged doctors and nurses, espeically those who had been victimised for speaking out in the past, to tell him where the current system was failing them.
Proposals so far have included greater anonymity for whistleblowers, with each claim judged by an independent regulator.
Acknowledging that many whistleblowers struggle to find work again, Francis said there needed to be better support systems to help them return to employment.
Writing for thetimes.co.uk, he said there must be “better means of retaining the services of those who have unfairly lost their jobs for doing the right thing.” Detail around this is yet to be divulged.
David Behan, chief executive of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said the review provided health care systems with an “invaluable opportunity” to learn from people who raise concerns.
"CQC takes all whistleblowing concerns seriously and we are currently looking at how we can better use whistleblowing information in our new inspections. We will use a range of data, including the number of whistleblowing alerts about the trust, to help us decide when and where to inspect. Our new inspections consider how hospitals respond to concerns raised by their staff," he said.
But Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association Council warned that “putting protections in place” was only part of the solution and more needed to be done to look at the underlying issues .
“It is in the interest of both staff and their patients to look more closely at the culture across the NHS, which has left staff unwilling to provide feedback or raise concerns for fear of reprisals,” he told The Times.
A full outline of the review and details of how NHS employees can share their experiences can be found here: http://freedomtospeakup.org.uk/