THE director general of health and social care for the Scottish Government is right to be concerned that staff won’t raise valid concerns about the service amid fears they will be victimised. (“NHS workers are too scared to speak out”, The Herald, September 26). The bi-annual staff survey indicates that only 57 per cent feel safe about speaking up, a figure that hasn’t changed over the last few years.

One would have hoped that the helpline the Government launched in April 2013 might have helped, but those who run it acknowledge that 90 per cent of callers have already raised the concern with their managers before ringing them. What is shocking is that the helpline tells them to go back to those same managers. For that is what the helpline does – small wonder that 35 per cent either did not leave their details or left the wrong ones. This figure begs the question as to why whistleblowers had so little confidence in the helpline that they would do such a thing.

In the first year 84 staff called, down to just 20 in the first six months of 2016. And this is out of a staff roll of 160,000. The Government renewed the helpline’s contract for another year in June, yet most staff feel that it won’t help them at all.

It’s because of all these reasons that I’ve lodged a petition to the Scottish Parliament calling for a whistleblower hotline for NHS staff, using an independent agency which would report direct to the staff governance committee on every regional health board. Most of these committees are run by non-executive directors, paid a stipend of £9,000 a year to turn up to a meeting every couple of months. All their knowledge is routed to them by the chief executive of the local board, so they only hear what the chief executive thinks they need to know. Since they know little about the concerns staff have, how can they be expected to govern properly?

From within their ranks the “whistleblowing champions” are appointed whose identities are kept secret and who have no staff-facing role. Add to this the fact that there is no mechanism in place for champions to learn who is blowing the whistle, so how can they be expected to champion anybody or anything?

Under my scheme the hotline provider would determine whether a concern was of a “major/significant” or “minor/operational” nature. If the former, the provider would always be responsible for the investigation and reporting of that concern to the board, whilst in the latter scenario they would have discretion to ask an NHS manager to investigate and report back to them.

Pete Gregson,

Kids not Suits,

27 Riversdale Grove, Edinburgh.

PAUL Gray (“All NHS workers should have the confidence to speak up without fear”, Agenda, The Herald, September 26) appears to be waking up to the problems facing staff in “whistleblowing” in the NHS and their implications for its overall effectiveness, including the quality and safety of services, and the well-being of patients and of front-line staff. This despite his previous denials that any such problems existed. Any meaningful initiatives to address the scandal of what happens to whistleblowers when they challenge management or the reputation of Health Boards are to be welcomed. But this will not be achieved by 'helplines', chat sites, or group huddles about practical problems. As Donnie Ross notes, a “root and branch” review is required, including of the highly authoritarian, “top-down” managerial culture now prevalent in the NHS. This is well documented by David Bowles (in NHS Lothian), the Paterson report, the recent BMA consultants' survey, by nursing and union spokespersons, and NHS staff surveys. Others, including myself, have advocated a genuinely-independent body with investigatory and disciplinary powers, not simply a National Whistleblowing Officer.

Mr Gray concludes by urging those whose concerns are not being listened to come forward and “tell him”. As one of the whistleblowers mentioned in your coverage, I did just that and approached Mr Gray formally two years ago having fruitlessly exhausted internal procedures within NHS Lothian. His response was to refer the matter back to the very health board where I had raised serious concerns about the safety and quality of a new perinatal psychiatry service and its management. This is akin to asking a local police force to investigate a complaint against itself. NHS Lothian managed its own “external” review of my saga and its outcomes. The concerns I raised were never properly investigated, I was forced out of my job and initially subject to a “gagging clause” in a settlement agreement “offered” to me. I was subject to a smear campaign, had my specialist career destroyed, and have effectively been blacklisted in Scotland. The concerns I raised (although this should not need to be the case), have been vindicated piecemeal by the findings of a few limited inquiries, by a series of critical incidents including maternal deaths, and, recently, by the damning verdict of the Mental Welfare Commission (MWC) on the treatment by NHS Lothian of a woman with a post-natal psychosis who killed her baby.

The review commissioned by Lothian, at Mr Gray's instigation, was in fact critical of the setting-up and management of the perinatal service and of my treatment, but NHS Lothian refuse to publish this, citing confidentiality. This is hardly the culture of transparency that Mr Gray advocates. I have discovered that my tale is absolutely typical of whistleblowers, especially within our current NHS.

Given his invitation, I would welcome a meeting with Mr Gray to review outstanding issues around my saga and the responses of the health board involved.

(Dr) Jane Hamilton (Consultant Psychiatrist),

NHS Humberside, Department of Psychological Medicine, Anlaby Road, Hull.