NHS managers are destroying the careers of whistleblowers who raise concerns about patient safety, a group of medics warns.
More than 50 doctors and nurses have told The Telegraph they have been targeted after raising concerns about upwards of 170 patient deaths and nearly 700 cases of poor care. One consultant described it as “the biggest scandal within our country” and said the true number of avoidable deaths was “astronomical”.
Instead of trying to fix the problems, the whistleblowers claim NHS bosses are spending millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money hiring law firms and private eyes to investigate them instead, leading many medics to quit the profession in despair.
In one case, the NHS spent more than £4 million on legal action against a single whistleblower, which included £3.2 million in compensation.
Writing for The Telegraph, Prof Phil Banfield, chairman of the council of the British Medical Association, which represents doctors, said whistleblowing “is not welcomed by NHS management … NHS trusts and senior managers are more concerned with protecting personal and organisational reputations than they are with protecting patients”.
