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"The NHS can be trusted to respond to Francis's challenge" (HSJ Leader, 7 February 2014) - really?

Francis impacts on culture and patient safety (Francis: One Year On, p. 4) - does it??

It certainly doesn't feel like it from where I'm standing in frontline clinical services, where two members of staff are being taken through disciplinary procedures on spurious and fabricated allegations for raising concerns about how a clinical service is run, supported by senior management and HR.

The unfolding story of Paula Vasco-Knight illustrates precisely the organisational and managerial self-preservation that is supposedly changing, where "corporateness" trumps public accountability and reporting to a line manager who is complicit is meaningless.

Still, we now have lots of bits of paper floating about in the spirit of accountability and transparency....;-)