Doctors, nurses
and other NHS workers who blow the whistle will be protected in
the future, under changes to the NHS Constitution announced by
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley today.
The changes will also make it clear that it is the duty of all
NHS workers to report bad practice or any mistreatment of patients
receiving care from the health service.
The changes will be enshrined in the NHS Constitution and
associated guidelines as soon as possible to encourage more staff
to come forward with concerns. This follows the poor care exposed
by the Care Quality Commission last week after unannounced
inspections of 100 NHS hospitals.
Changes to the constitution, to be made in early 2012, will add:
• an expectation that staff should raise concerns at the earliest
opportunity;
• a pledge that NHS organisations should support
staff when raising concerns by ensuring their concerns are fully
investigated and that there is someone independent, outside of
their team, to speak to; and
• clarity around the existing
legal right for staff to raise concerns about safety, malpractice
or other wrong doing without suffering any detriment.
The changes, which are part of a series of measures intended to
promote whistleblowing, follow a public consultation earlier this
year in which there was an overwhelmingly positive response to
amend the NHS Constitution in this way.
Andrew Lansley said:
“The first lines of defence against bad practice are the doctors
and nurses doing their best to care for patients. They need to
know that they have a responsibility to their patients to raise
concerns if they see risks to patient safety. And when they do,
they should be reassured that the Government stands full square
behind them.
“We are determined to root out the problems in the NHS. That is
why I requested a series of unannounced hospital inspections by
the Care Quality Commission. Its latest reports showed there are
long standing problems and we now want to do all we can to tackle them.”
Notes to editors
1. For a copy of the consultation report go
to http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Responsestoconsultations/DH_130551
2. On 9 June 2010, the Secretary of State made an announcement to
the House of Commons, with regard to taking forward a full inquiry
into the failings at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.
Within this announcement he committed to undertake further work on
whistleblowing, outlining five key areas for improvement, one of
which was to ‘Reinforce the NHS constitution to make clear the
rights and responsibilities of NHS staff and their employers in
respect of whistleblowing’.
3. The NHS Constitution codifies NHS principles and values and
the rights and responsibilities of patients and staff. It
specifically draws attention to the protection available to staff,
and the handbook to the constitution specifically cites the Public
Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA) and available staff rights ‘to
protection from detriment in employment and the right not to be
unfairly dismissed’. The proposed amendments to the Constitution
as set out in the consultation document would emphasise those
rights and responsibilities.
4. The Department conducted a full public consultation between 12
October 2010 and 11 January 2011 – 103 responses were received.
Contacts:
Department of Health
Phone: 020 7210 5221
NDS.DH@coi.gsi.gov.uk