NHS


Week in and week out, staff blow the whistle across the NHS. Few will think of themselves as whistleblowers, knowing that they are just doing their job. This is a welcome change from the culture that bedevilled the NHS a decade or more ago where staff were too scared to raise concerns and which allowed the scandals of Harold Shipman and the Bristol Royal Infirmary to go unchecked for so long.

While every day across the NHS people are now raising whistleblowing concerns, both staff and organisations still want independent advice to help ensure this can be done safely and responsibly. Recognising this, the Department of Health put out a competitive tender for bodies to provide whistleblowing support to the NHS in England. PCaW won the tender and is delighted to be able to continue to work with staff, managers and professionals across the NHS.

The contract - which is to provide advice and guidance for staff and bodies throughout the NHS in England and policy advice to Government - runs to April 2011.

The Social Partnership Forum has launched a guide Speak up for a healthy NHS, written by us, to help NHS organisations achieve best practice whistleblowing arrangements and create a culture where staff can speak up safely.The guidance also to promotes the support we provide across the NHS. The Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley commented on the launch of the guide:

"Publication of this guide is an important step in developing a culture of patient safety. NHS staff need to be free to raise concerns and shielded from any backlash. To make sure staff know about their rights, and are supported, the local NHS must champion this guide in their own organisations."

Whistleblowing to protect patients
In April 2008 in conjunction with Nursing Standard magazine we ran a survey for nurses on whislteblowing and received 752 responses. Our findings revealed that of those respondents 232 nurses successfully blew the whistle and saved patients from harm. 87% of respondents said they would blow the whistle next week even if they had suffered reprisals in the past. The good news is that nurses say the culture is improving year on year but 47% still said the concern was handled badly. Where a trust promotes whistleblowing well 67% of nurses say the concern was handled well. In trusts where whistleblowing is not promoted this figure collapses to 16%. Click here for our summary of the results and click here for the survey results.

We recently made a submission to the Department of Health's Responsible Officers and their duties consultation. Click here for more information.

For more information about our work in this area, see PCaW’s work in the NHS