Temat: Whistleblowing newsletter:

Whistleblowing newsletter:

Welcome to our newsletter

This week together with Kay Sheldon, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) whistleblower, I gave evidence to the Public Accounts Committee on the findings of the National Audit Office's report Making a whistleblowing policy work. The main question was: why with seemingly good policies are whistleblowers still suffering reprisals?

The committee meeting coincided with new report The Financial Cost of Healthcare Fraud 2014 published by the University of Portsmouth's Centre for Counter Fraud Studies and BDO LLP which looks at global fraud data. The findings were picked up by BBC's Panorama and raise significant questions about the way in which NHS spending is being monitored. Fraud is costing the NHS £5bn a year, with a further £2bn lost to financial errors.

A number of whistleblowers were mentioned in the programme. From pharmacists who raised concerns about the suspicions they had that a GP was abusing her position to obtain controlled drugs for personal use, to Serco whistleblowers who revealed that staff were altering data about performance, leading to an investigation by the Public Accounts Committee. Without doubt whistleblowers play a crucial role in reporting fraud in the NHS. A Freedom of Information request by the BBC showed that NHS Protect, the counter fraud team for Department of Health, employs 321 investigators to tackle this vast level of fraud. This highlights a system which is deeply in need of staff vigilance that should support whistleblowing as a mechanism of accountability to combat fraud.

Unfortunately, we are not there yet. The reaction of Belfast Health Trust to a whistleblower's allegations of neglect, detailed below, represents the paradox of whistleblowing in the NHS. When wrongdoing of great proportion is revealed we are quick to ask ‘where were the whistleblowers?’ but too often those who try to do the right thing get burned in the process.

There is a defensive culture at the heart of many of our institutions that needs to change. We need a culture that holds wrongdoers to account with the ability to acknowledge that sometimes mistakes are made. In turn this will promote better practice, enhance civic trust and save the taxpayer money.

Also this week, news that the police whistleblower who raised concerns about crime statistics has resigned and in Ireland the Police Commissioner has resigned over the ongoing whistleblower row.

Finally, the Supreme Court heard our intervention in the Van Winkelhof case, we expect to have the judgment in roughly 8 -12 weeks' time and the House of Lords provided a lively debate around the recommendations of the Whistleblowing Commission, we will circulate this once the debate is on Hansard.
Cathy James
Chief Executive

NHS fraud and error 'costing the UK £7bn a year'
This week's Panorama shows that there are serious problems in the way NHS spending is being monitored. Fraud is costing the NHS £5bn a year, with a further £2bn lost to financial errors, according to the former head of its anti-fraud section. The programme details the immense fraud committed by dentist Joyce Trail who made more than 7,000 false claims amounting to a total of £1.7m.
BBC News, 24 March 2014

Metropolitan police whistleblower 'forced to resign'
The whistleblower who revealed inaccuracies in the Metropolitan police service (MPS)'s crime figures, prompting an investigation and the withdrawal of their gold standard status for statistics, said he had resigned as a result of his treatment by senior officers.

PC James Patrick gave evidence to a parliamentary committee that led to admissions by the police inspector, Tom Winsor, and the Met commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, that crime figures produced by the force were likely to be unreliable.

He said: "My experience led me to see just how flawed the whistleblowing system is, how it fails, but also to firmly believe that no police officer should normally resign or retire while subject to any misconduct investigation. But the circumstances are such that I have no choice."
The Guardian, 25 March 2014

Nurse whistleblower Kevin Murray wins damages
A whistleblower has won undisclosed damages against a national nursing agency following an industrial tribunal in Belfast.

Agency nurse Kevin Murray made allegations of abuse and neglect regarding a patient's home care package. While his concerns went unheeded, Mr Murray was removed from his role with the patient and received fewer and fewer shifts from the agency. Worryingly the minutes of a meeting seen by the BBC show threats made by the Belfast Health Trust (BHT) regarding Mr Murray. The BHT threatened to cease their contract with the agency if they did not take action against Mr Murray. Mr Murray is now pursuing a claim against the BHT.
BBC News, 25 March 2014

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan resigns over whistleblower row
Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan informed Justice Minister Alan Shatter of his decision to resign on Tuesday. Mr Callinan told a parliamentary committee the whistleblowers' claims were "disgusting", but he was urged to withdraw his remarks after an independent report recommended major reform of the system.
Padraig Mac Lochlainn, chairman of the Public Service Oversight Committee, said Mr Callinan had made the right decision.

"From the moment that the allegations from the two Garda whistleblowers, Maurice McCabe and John Wilson, emerged about widespread malpractice of the penalty points issue the Garda Commissioner sought to downplay and even dismiss the allegations. Worse, he repeatedly sought to discredit the credibility of the two whistleblowers which culminated in the outrageous 'disgusting' comment at the Public Accounts Committee."
BBC News, 25 March 2014

This resignation also vindicates journalist Gemma O'Doherty who was made compulsorily redundant following her pursuit of the story at Irish Independent.

Making whistleblowing work: http://pcaw.org.uk - whistle@pcaw.org.uk