Action, not
words, is needed but what?
Recently I
was able to attend the Turn up the Volume 2 conference in London, called and
arranged by Steve Turner. See https://www.nonexecutivedirectors.com/steve-turner-ned-9574.html for details of Steve’s career
and extensive experience. In particular,
in 2014 he set up and continues to manage Care Right Now (CIC)www.carerightnow.co.uk a
Social Enterprise Company delivering healthcare service development, based on
education and learning. And yes, he was a whistleblower
with the usual destructive outcomes.
Grim but after recovery from the harm, Steve is very much back in action. Inspirational.
Steve had
lined up an eminent group of people to describe what they are doing to try and
change the culture in the NHS so that it is safe for whistleblowers to
speak. Better still of course would be
no further need for whistleblowing, with listening and responding trust boards,
as some are now starting to do. We can
dream that one day it will be all trusts. (See the website Care Right Now (CIC)
for details of the speakers at Turn Up the Volume 2.
There were
frequent opportunities for the audience to contribute their thoughts. Many of
the audience were whistle blowers so well placed to speak.
When the www.suspension-nhs.org website was set up in June 2003 it attracted a
small group of people who had fallen foul of their organisations, had
experienced the horror of suspension, the worst thing that had ever happened to
them, one of them concluded. These
people joined me in helping people in similar situations and we all began to
campaign. Some have continued but I
stopped to care for my husband. He was
set free from Parkinson’s disease last year and I am free to return to the
campaigning. I am also in the process of
updating the www.suspension-nhs.org website.
I went to
the conference to get some ideas of what is happening nationally and what CAUSE
(Campaign Against Unnecessary Suspensions and Exclusions UK) can do to try and
stop the injustice and inhumanity of unfair suspensions and all it entails.
En route I
read the document published in 2014 by the whistleblowing helpline called
‘Raising concerns at work’. (See www.wbhelpline.org.uk
to read or download a copy.) The Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt,
wrote in the Foreword,
‘Staff should be supported and
protected when they raise concerns, as well as praised for their courage and
thanked by management as a key part of the effort to build a safe, effective
and compassionate culture that patients, service users, the public and the overwhelming
majority of staff across health and social services expect.’
A loud amen
to that but it is not happening everywhere and the usual horror story follows. More action is desperately needed. Contact enquiries@suspension-nhs.org
with your suggestions for what can be done please.
Here is to justice
and truth and patient focused honest care.
Julie