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The right to know and a culture of obstruction

It is to the great credit of Rab Wilson, a former psychiatric nurse, that, despite being derided as vexatious and suspended from his job, he continued to seek reports of serious incidents from his employers, Ayrshire and Arran Health Board, for five years.

The failure to provide him with a report after a patient absconded set alarm bells ringing for Mr Wilson, who argued that the ability to learn lessons from serious incidents was being jeopardised. When the board refused him copies of reports into previous incidents, he realised the public interest was not being served and made a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.