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Sadly, the NHS whistle-blowers, often the last safety net for patients, are largely written out of the script in this article. To some extent Sir Robert Francis with his Freedom to Speak up Review is to blame for this.
In his report Francis openly acknowledged that many NHS staff who had raised serious concerns about patient care, including harm, death, rape, cover-up and fraud had suffered merciless victimisation by senior NHS managers. In an open letter we challenged him about what he had done with such reports. His answer in a national newspaper is still shocking to me:
'I was asked by the Secretary of State to review the way concerns are handled and how those who raised them are treated.
'I was not asked to investigate or pass judgement on the concerns themselves and made it very clear to all concerned that I was not going to do so.’
It is not unreasonable to expect that the QC who ran the Mid Staffs PI would recommend that someone look into these cases. The Just Culture that Francis claimed to espouse in his report required that. The truth for patients and their families, learning for the NHS, justice for the victimised staff and accountability for the perpetrators. Francis failed on every level. And set an unhealthy precedent that a blind eye can still be turned to such matters.
The whistle-blowers will view with some irony any reports and initiatives that claim to address patient safety in the NHS while the past is so studiously ignored.