anyone want to sign this petition regarding the whistle blowing nurse who has been struck off?

[SnortyBartFast]

whistle blowing nurse

No problem.

Hopefully the petition will have the desired effect, and this woman, who has done more for patient safety than any number of government reports, is reinstated. I also hope that a full public enquiry is held, and then nurses who abused these patients are removed from their posts to face criminal charges.

Absolutely, BigGit. There's too much substandard care in the NHS for it to be able to cope with whistleblowing on a large scale. It relies on these public strikes from duty by the NMC to keep everyone in check, and to remind what can - and does - happen if you whistleblow.

Agree, paolosgirl. NMC is in this case acting as an instrument in the conspiracy of silence, rather than a champion for the rights and dignity of patients. Shame.

Shows very little has changed since the Bristol children died. Steve Bolsin, the anaesthetist who blew the whistle, tried EVERY way to raise his concerns about paediatric heart surgery, including giving his figures to the Dept of Health. But it was only when the media found out that anyone started to give a shit.

While he was being blocked by his bosses, the regional health authority and the Dept. of Health, more children died. If he'd gone to the media first, maybe some of them would have been saved. Striking that none of the nurses, who knew damn well that vulnerable children were being killed by arrogant doctors, spoke up.

Bolsin had to emigrate for his pains - this country owes him a huge debt of thanks yet there was no way he could find work here.

If Bristol happened all over again, clearly the NMC thinks nurses should keep schtum. And that's exactly why terrible scandals keep happening.

Sidge, sometimes we have to act when we don't know all the facts, because by not acting, we may be allowing worse injustice to slide by. If we sign the petition, based on what we are worried MIGHT have happened, you can bet that the bosses will notice that.

Similarly, if nobody bothers to sign it, they will note that too, and feel more confident covering up sub-standard care next time.

bump

have signed and totally agree with this:

"By edam on Sat 02-May-09 18:40:05
no-one was bothered about the human dignity of these poor patients when they were being abused by nurses, were they?

It's a flaming cheek for anyone to start bleating about filming damaging these patients. "

thanks, Lulu!

I wouldn't dream of signing it.
Unlike other posters, I wasn't at the NMC hearing and do not know all the facts, but filming patients without their prior consent is abhorrent to me.
I believe she may have thought she was acting in the patients' best interests but this is not the way to make her concerns known.
From what I know of the case she had not exhausted legitimate 'whistle-blowing' avenues prior to the decision to use vulnerable patients in this fashion.

signed

i agree with every word you have said on this subject , edam.

What exactly is understood by "she did not try particularly hard to whistleblow"? Does this not imply that she did try more legimate routes first and then turned to whistleblowing? I have also read somewhere that relatives complained about the standard of care and got nowhere.

I agree with Sidge - how can you sign a petition which provides such minimal information about what is probably a complex issue? Although there are a number of articles about the case there seem to be very few facts in the public domain. For example from the BBC notes about the documentary it would appear that she was recruited and paid by Panorama specifically for the purpose of getting into the ward to film, which would mean that she wasn't a whistleblower at all, but more of a mole.

Filming without consent (especially of vulnerable people) is wrong, but being a whistleblower is of course commendable. All trusts are required to have a policy in place, and those policies should mean that once you have raised concerns with your immediate manager (or their manager if the concern is about your manager) then there is a route to the Chief Nurse or often a member of the Board (often a non-exec for impartiality). Was this in place in her hospital (nothing to do with the Health Authority btw, although they would be a further place to raise issues, should the trust not have responded, and then she could have gone to CHI after that) and did she use it? I don't get the impression that that was Panorama's remit at all, and I can see why the hospital was very angry about the situation, as from the BBC story they had in fact acted on the complaints made, by investigating the issues (with their patient forum too) making changes and appointing a new ward manager. Perhaps too little too late, but these changes were not due to the actions of the documentary or this nurses actions. Of course the Trust should have been ensuring that such conditions didn't arise in the first place too, and poor care of the elderly is unfortunately still a real problem.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/4655929.stm

On the other hand the NMC is fairly notorious for being harsh, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was an over reaction - being struck off for life is the most severe penalty available. That the RCN is supporting her means very little in my opinion - I have experienced them defending actions that really were fairly undefendable.

How can I sign it? Because the appalling treatment of patients, which fortunately has now come to light thanks to Panorama, is more important to me than any NHS 'procedure' - and having worked for the NHS for 20 years I know there are many of them.

Had the HA followed NHS procedures in terms of patients rights, dignity at work, health and safety, infection control, staffing levels, professional conduct of the nurses involved in the 'care', reporting of substandard care - do you need me to go on? - then I may have a tiny amount of sympathy for them. They ignored all of this, and quite frankly I'm delighted that they've been exposed.

As for the NMC - as I said earlier, they know that the NHS could not function if all the whistleblowing that should go on actually went ahead, and so it's sending out a very clear and deeply questionnable message.

It's very vulnerable people who were involved here - what's more important? An NHS procedure only when it suits the HA? I don't think so.

No they were not being abused by nurses. They were abused by hospital management. If your baby's childminder was left with 30 babies to look after alone would you call her "abusive" when those babies suffered? Why not? We do this to nurses and hospital patients all the time.

What if the childminder got to hour 13 and had to stop for food. Would you slam her for not getting straight up and changing a nappy in the middle of that? Taking into consideration that the assistant she had helping could do it? And that the nurse childminder is overwhelmed with only and assistant to help? And the assistant can not really help with very much only
catheters nappies. That situation with the nurse not getting up from her break to change the catheter bag was a total set up.

I have signed the petition. Margaret Haywood did the right thing in a bad way. It is sad that she needed to resort to patient confidentiality breeches and the BBC to get the word out. But please do not blame these situations on "uncaring" "lazy" nurses. Panorama is very heavily edited.

I have no doubt that the patients (especially elderly patients) are suffering in inhuman conditions. The nurses are on their knees.

Others are trying to do the same thing in a different way. Something has to be done.

militantmedicalnurse.blogspot.com/2009/04/attitudes-towards-nursing-part2-british.html

The nurses are on their knees but they are being scapegoated.

pramspotter, can assure you that my automatic assumption was that poor management was probably to blame. Understaffing, bad training etc.

I think that it is a real shame. Because of budgets and targets, these things are still going to happen. I am just coming to the end of an Access to Nursing and Midwifery course and God help you if some of these women are caring for you (and one man). Most are cold, hard-hearted individuals that will get a job because they will toe the line and will not give a fig about whistle blowing. They are narrow minded, and know that nursing is pretty much a job for life.

I probably would not get a job because I would stand up for my patients regardless of personal consequences.

Anybody that even thinks of doing it now has been sent a short sharp message.

Good luck to you and your family if you dont sign...

Signed.

I loathe and detest the NMC and this has pretty much cemented it for me.

The sad fact is that Trusts will be deaf for as long as it suits them.

Thank you for posting this link - I have signed.