Healthcare Features
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The NHS Constitution and its handbook will be tightened to prevent trusts from suppressing staff concerns about safety, malpractice or wrongdoing, the Health Secretary has announced.
Andrew Lansley, who insisted that a culture of fear and secrecy was rare in the NHS, said staff would also have a constitutional obligation to blow the whistle.
In a consultation paper, the Department of Health has proposed three key changes to the NHS Constitution:
- “highlighting existing legal rights of all staff to raise concerns about safety, malpractice or other wrongdoing without fear of dismissal or other ramifications
- introducing an NHS pledge that employers will support all staff in raising such concerns, responding to and where necessary investigating concerns raised, and
- creating an expectation that NHS staff will raise concerns about safety, malpractice or wrongdoing at work which may affect patients, the public, other staff or the organisation itself as early as possible.”
According to the consultation paper, “the current legal protection available to staff who wish to raise concerns is strong but implementation on the ground has not always been consistent or effective”.
It said: “Whilst the clinical instincts and professional ethos of NHS staff are the most effective guardians of safe, effective and respectful care, all too often staff who have spoken up for patients have found themselves punished rather than celebrated.”
The paper added that the government was determined to enhance the protection available to staff and to “give teeth” to the current safeguards under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 for those wishing to raise concerns.
The Health Secretary said the changes could help prevent failures such as those investigated at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.
Lansley said: “A public inquiry into the failings at Mid-Staffordshire is already underway. But it’s important that we don’t delay making changes to prevent such failures from happening again. The NHS Constitution must be brought up to date to enshrine the rights of staff.
“Staff should be working in an environment where they feel able to voice concerns and know that their concerns will be taken seriously. The changes we are consulting on take that a step further. Staff will be expected to raise concerns and employers must support them and investigate where necessary. That means better patient care and better staff morale.”
In September, the NHS Staff Council agreed that all staff working in the NHS had a contractual right and duty to report genuine concerns about malpractice, patient safety or other serious risks that they consider in the public interest.
Meanwhile, new guidance on whistle-blowing was published in June 2010 for the NHS, developed through the Social Partnership Forum (SPF) with advice from the independent charity Public Concern at Work.
The consultation on the NHS Constitution closes on 20 January 2011. A copy can be downloaded here.
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The Royal Berkshire Hospital is to charge Oxfordshire County Council £10,000 amid claims that the local authority is not doing enough to prevent “bed blocking”, according to a report by the BBC.
The hospital has suggested that some patients are having to remain on wards because of a lack of care provision.
The BBC said Royal Berkshire’s chief executive, Ed Donald, had confirmed the charges in a report. They will be backdated to April.
John Jackson, Oxfordshire’s director for social and community services, called for a new approach.
He told the BBC: “That is about stopping people going into hospital who don’t need to go in and actually getting people out very quickly from hospital.”
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Storing sensitive personal data on unencrypted data sticks is a risk NHS trusts “should not be willing to make”, the head of enforcement at the Information Commissioner’s Office has said.
Mick Gorrill’s comments came after the ICO ruled that East & North Hertfordshire NHS Trust breached the Data Protection Act when an unencrypted USB stick was lost by a junior doctor on a train journey home.
The doctor used the stick to record details of patients’ conditions and medication before handing over to the next doctor on shift. The stick was taken home accidentally with the intention of forwarding the data electronically. It has never been found.
The trust was informed as soon as the doctor realised what had happened. Enquiries by the ICO found that they had not been aware of East & North Hertfordshire’s data protection policies. The doctor did not have access to email so could not receive policy reminders or updates.
The ICO’s investigations also revealed that:
- the trust’s policies on using USB sticks were unclear, and
- no technical measures were in place to prevent misuse of portable devices.
The trust’s chief executive has since given an undertaking, agreeing to ensure its policy on portable devices is clear and communicated to all staff. East & North Hertfordshire will provide training to all staff with access to personal information, and also monitor compliance.
Gorrill said: “If it is vital to store information for handover, this must be done with the highest security measures in place. Furthermore, it is vital that employees are fully aware of processes which could have prevented this incident from occurring."
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South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust’s bid to become a foundation trust has taken a major step forward this month after Health Secretary Andrew Lansley approved its application.
Monitor, the regulator for foundation trusts, will now carry out the final assessment stage.
If SECAmb’s application is approved, it will become one of the first ambulance trusts to gain foundation trust status. This is likely to be in spring 2011, if everything goes to plan.
SECAmb chief executive Paul Sutton said: “Becoming a foundation trust will provide an excellent platform from which we can progress our vision to be a world-leader in pre-hospital emergency care.
“It will also provide an opportunity to respond better to the needs of our local population as they will have direct involvement in what we do.”
Sutton said one of the most attractive aspects of FT status was the role local communities will have in the organisation.
He called on residents, patients, SECAmb staff and representatives from partners organisations to register as members so that they can be more involved in how 999 emergency healthcare services are developed in future. Members can be elected onto a council of governors.