NHS Scotland staff who are not satisfied with internal investigations will soon be able to enlist the help of an Independent National Whistleblowing Officer (INWO).
In what the Scottish Government hails as a UK first, the SNP says the Scottish Parliament next year will bring the INWO role under the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. This would provide statutory powers to help whistleblowers. The INWO will also examine health boards’ culture and approach to whistleblowing – particularly where a whistleblower claims to have been unfairly treated as a result of raising a concern.
The SNP’s Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “All NHS staff should have the confidence to speak up without fear, and in the knowledge their concerns will be treated seriously and investigated properly. The Independent National Whistleblowing Officer will give staff the ability to access an independent, external body who can review their case and bring it to a clear, final and fair conclusion.
“As Scotland’s independent and impartial watchdog, the Ombudsman is well-placed to provide that safeguard. It will mean cases are dealt with in a way that provides the very highest levels of reassurance for staff.”
This follows the Freedom to Speak Up Review, for an ‘honest reporting culture’ in the NHS, chaired by Sir Robert Francis QC, and published in February 2015.
Meanwhile a charity, Public Concern at Work, has spoken out against the British Medical Association’s whistleblowing guidance for junior doctors, which they argue puts patient safety at risk by fracturing whistleblowing rights for doctors. PCaW points to the case of junior Dr Chris Day who raised concerns about critically low staffing ratios during a night-shift on an Intensive Care Unit at a south London hospital in 2013; he has since been in a legal battle.
PCaW Head of Legal Services, Roger Easy, said: “It is beyond disappointing that the BMA refuses to acknowledge the significance of Dr Day’s case and its relevance to all junior doctors who wish to raise concerns, many of which may be about patient safety. Instead of providing robust legal protection as claimed the contractual arrangement is a sticking plaster that fractures whistleblowing protection and requires separate claims in different courts, to be brought against both HEE and the Trust where the junior doctor worked. This causes confusion and legal uncertainty for junior doctors. The arrangement requires whistleblowing claims against HEE to be brought in the civil courts, which have extensive rules and procedures and carry the risk of a costs award if unsuccessful. When compared to the Employment Tribunal process, which is both accessible and familiar with dealing with whistleblowing claims, we question whether these arrangements will encourage junior doctors to raise patient safety issues in the knowledge that legal redress is accessible to them.”
PCaW argues that whistleblowing law, the Public Interest Disclosure Act, (PIDA) offers full statutory rights. The BMA points to a collaborative approach and says that FTSU (Freedom to Speak Up) guardians are in place in every English NHS trust.
