HAVING been a major whistle-blower I can fully appreciate the pressure and strain Dr Jane Hamilton is under ("Doctor risks sack by going public over whistle-blowing", The Herald, January 9).
She is correct to question the so-called independence of the inquiry carried out by Dr Margaret Oates into NHS Lothians perinatal psychiatry service.
In my own case at NHS Ayrshire and Arran (NHS A&A) I recall a meeting with the then chair of its board, Professor Bill Stevely. Prof Stevely stated that an independent investigation would be carried out by Price Waterhouse Coopers into the management of critical incidents at NHS A&A after I had raised concerns about this. This report turned out to be inadequate in my opinion. PWC only interviewed senior managers at NHS A&A whilst not one member of the workforce who had been involved in a critical incident was interviewed or asked to contribute to the report. Unsurprisingly, the PWC report concluded that NHS A&A's management of critical incidents presented "no critical risks to the organisation" and that "they did not have a significant impact in terms of patient safety".
It later transpired that there had been 20 deaths.
This is typical of the sort of "independent investigations" carried out by health boards. The practice of bringing in foxes to investigate the foxes needs to stop. We need truly independent bodies to carry out such investigations in our NHS.
As for the "gagging clause" allegedly imposed on Dr Hamilton, there is no doubt in my mind that this is an attempt to try to suppress the truth about matters pertaining to patient safety. Anyone who has signed an NHS compromise agreement would tell you (if they could) that these are gagging instruments.
I believe the 697 compromise agreements in the NHS in Scotland over the past three years all contained confidentiality clauses, something which the Central Legal Office seem to have difficulty providing confirmation of.
All of these compromise agreements state (including mine and no doubt Jane Hamilton's) that the person signing the agreement cannot even divulge that a compromise agreement exists. Their families are gagged by extension also, as they cannot divulge its existence either.
This is a clear breach of human rights as defined in the European Convention on Human Rights.
Rab Wilson,
1 Nursery View,
New Cumnock.
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