Major acute trust launches investigation into bullying during covid crisis

Unison raised the collective grievance on behalf of health workers who were reassigned to look after covid-19 patients in a palliative care ward at The Queens Medical Centre in central Nottingham, run by Nottingham University Hospitals Trust.

The union said the nurses and healthcare assistants were subjected to “horrendous bullying harassment, intimidation and victimisation”.

The trust said it had launched an investigation into the concerns raised and said it has offered psychological and pastoral support to the staff directly involved.

According to Unison, one anonymous staff member in the group said: “Normally, the palliative care team who deal with end-of-life patients handle 200 deaths each year – we dealt with 185 in 10 weeks. People doing that job normally receive high levels of training and support because of the stress. We had none of that.”

Another Unison member said: “When we raised concerns, we started being bullied by the managers. There was a sickness board with everyone’s individual illnesses on display in the break room to intimidate you into coming in, however ill you were.”

Unison also reported that staff were denied PPE and were openly shouted at on the ward in front of others.

Neil Pease, chief people officer at NUH, said the trust was “really disappointed” to hear of the concerns and said it was taking them “very seriously”.

“Bullying and harassment are not tolerated in our organisation,” Mr Pease stressed.

“We greatly value our staff for the incredible dedication and resilience they have shown during the pandemic. They have done amazing things in the face of truly unprecedented challenges, so to hear of these grievances is very troubling indeed,” he added.

“‘Shocked’ and ‘saddened’ have been the reactions from many staff in the last 24 hours at this report, because this is not their experience of the support they have received and the trust’s approach to handling the pandemic,” Mr Pease said.

He added the trust had “clearly not got it right for all our staff”.

Unison East Midlands regional officer Dave Ratchford said: “Staff were told their lives would be made hell for complaining. No one should be bullied at work and least of all those who put their families on hold and their lives on the line for the rest of us.”

Mr Ratchford told HSJ the case at NUH should “act as a wake-up call for everyone involved in the NHS”.

He added that the conditions that exist at NUH exist across the NHS and enable bullying “to thrive”.