Coverage in The Guardian by Denis Campbell and Matthew Weaver:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The health secretary Matt Hancock<\/a> has repeatedly failed to respond to concerns that his local hospital is bullying and intimidating senior doctors to prevent them raising serious issues of patient safety, the Guardian can reveal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doctors at West Suffolk hospital have complained of harassment after trust bosses demanded they give fingerprints as part of a \u201cwitch-hunt\u201d to identify staff members who blew the whistle on potentially botched surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The family of Susan Warby, who died five weeks after an operation in August 2018, was sent an anonymous letter highlighting errors in her procedure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After conducting a serious incident investigation into her treatment, the trust threatened senior medics with possible disciplinary action if they failed to give their fingerprints and samples of their handwriting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The trust insisted this request was not threatening but a note to staff warned that refusal to consent \u201ccould be considered as evidence which implicates you in writing the letter\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consultants at the hospital, in Bury St Edmunds, are so angry at the threats and what one called a \u201cculture of bullying from the top down\u201d that they have written to the trust\u2019s chairwoman raising \u201cgrave concerns\u201d. They accused the management team of denying staff the freedom to speak about their concerns over care, which has been an enshrined right for NHS staff since theMid Staffordshire scandal<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Details of the treatment of staff have been passed to Hancock. However, he has rebuffed on three occasions attempts to discuss the deep-seated problems at the trust with those who have raised concerns, including a senior clinician who was asked for fingerprints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n