NO ONE, least of all the Health Secretary, should be in any doubt about the gravity of the situation described by senior staff at NHS Highland. Putting their names to a stinging statement alleging a “long-standing bullying culture” was not an everyday move without consequences. Clearly, the situation has demanded they speak out, and they’re to be commended for so doing.
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the “culture of fear and intimidation” they identify is how long it’s been going on: a decade. That puts it beyond transient bosses and Health Secretaries. That means it’s deep-rooted. That means it’ll be difficult to eradicate. But eradicated it must be.
And not just in NHS Highland. NHS Tayside’s whistleblowing champion recently felt compelled to resign and in so doing drew attention to “systemic bullying and negative cliques” that, he claimed, had caused a junior doctor to commit suicide. In June, a culture of “bullying and harassment” was reported regarding accident and emergency waiting times at NHS Lothian. This is starting to look like a nationwide problem. It’s bad for staff, and what’s bad for staff is bad for patients. And that’s all bad for new Health Secretary Jeane Freeman. With her feet barely under the desk she’ll be aware that the wider situation at NHS Tayside played a major part in her predecessor’s resignation.
As Highland is added to a grim picture of the working culture in the NHS, she now knows the problem is widespread across the organisation. Undoubtedly, she will want to do something, and perhaps staying out of it is one idea. That is to say, instead of the Government weighing in with more fatuous guidelines and stress-causing targets, or health boards again promising better marking of their own work, a genuinely independent body should be set up to monitor workforce complaints.
That would have the merit of increasing accountability – which is clearly the key requirement here.
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