\u201cThreatening\u201d and \u201cintimidating\u201d tactics used against doctors at health secretary Matt Hancock\u2019s local hospital has contributed to the biggest rating downgrade by the NHS regulator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
West Suffolk Hospital\u2019s demand for fingerprints to track down a whistleblower \u2013 as revealed by the Guardian last month \u2013 was \u201cunprecedented and concerning\u201d, according to the Care Quality Commission (CQC). This and a series of other failings around patient safety has led to the first ever relegation of a hospital from an \u201coutstanding\u201d status to \u201crequires improvement\u201d by CQC inspectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The regulator\u2019s in-depth inspection was triggered after 10 separate whistleblowers from the hospital voiced alarm. When the CQC went in they found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Management and doctors at loggerheads and that had led to a damaging breakdown in relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-What a senior doctor at the hospital called a \u201c\u2018them and us\u2019 situation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Tensions so great that they were affecting the running of the hospital\u2019s medical services. -Staff \u201cfeared reprisals if they raised concerns\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Widespread concern about \u201cbullying and harassment\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trust hired fingerprint and handwriting experts to track down the member of staff who had anonymously tipped off a family about medical blunders that had occurred before a patient \u2013 57-year-old Susan Warby \u2013 died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Doctors\u2019 Association UK, which represents grassroots medics, said the findings \u2013 and the review, which NHS England is undertaking \u2013 should lead to changes in the hospital\u2019s leadership. \u201cWe do feel that this should raise questions for the health secretary. Despite previously committing to work with doctors on a Learn Not Blame culture in the NHS, Hancock appears to have stuck his head in the sand when clinicians have tried to raise concerns with him directly regarding patient safety issues. \u201cHis silence on this issue has been deafening, and will do little to reassure staff across the NHS that their concerns will be listened to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Excerpt from The Guardian, read the full article by Denis Campbell and Matthew Weaver here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2020\/jan\/30\/hospital-hired-fingerprint-experts-to-unmask-whistleblower-report-finds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the CQC downgrades West Suffolk hospital\u2019s rating from Outstanding to Requires Improvement DAUK Chair Dr Rinesh Parmar raises questions for the Health Secretary who \u2018buried his head in the sand\u2019 when doctors tried to approach him with patient safety concerns. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,92],"tags":[38,39,46,42,114,144],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-compassionate-culture","category-learn-not-blame","tag-dauk","tag-doctors-association-uk","tag-dr-rinesh-parmar","tag-the-doctors-association-uk","tag-the-guardian","tag-west-suffolk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}