Government to add new “whistleblowing duty” into NHS Constitution

The government will create a new duty for NHS employees to report bad practice or patient mistreatment and provide new protections for staff that do so, the health secretary Andrew Lansley has announced.

The proposed changes follow the poor care uncovered by the Care Quality Commission this month after unannounced inspections of 100 NHS hospitals.  

The changes will also make it clear that it is the duty of all NHS workers to report bad practice or any mistreatment of patients receiving care from the health service. The changes will be added to  the NHS Constitution and associated guidelines in early 2012,

They will add:

• an expectation that staff should raise concerns at the earliest opportunity;

• a pledge that NHS organisations should support staff when raising concerns by ensuring their concerns are fully investigated and that there is someone independent, outside of their team, to speak to; and

• clarity around the existing legal right for staff to raise concerns about safety, malpractice or other wrong doing without suffering any detriment.

Andrew Lansley said:“The first lines of defence against bad practice are the doctors and nurses doing their best to care for patients. They need to know that they have a responsibility to their patients to raise concerns if they see risks to patient safety. And when they do, they should be reassured that the Government stands full square behind them.“We are determined to root out the problems in the NHS. That is why I requested a series of unannounced hospital inspections by the Care Quality Commission. Its latest reports showed there are long standing problems and we now want to do all we can to tackle them.”

The proposed changes are currently the sibejct of a consultation process, which can be accessed at the following link: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Responsestoconsultations/DH_1305512.