Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘Culture change needed so problems are raised’
Reluctance from BAME healthcare workers to have say
GPS and nurses have called for a culture change after it was revealed healthcare workers from minority backgrounds are less likely to speak out about errors, bullying, and other issues in the workplace. A recommendation to appoint “freedom to speak up” guardians to protect whistleblowers was approved by the governing body of the Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) last Thursday.
The board was chaired by Ashford CCG clinical lead, Dr Navin Kumta, and made up of leading GPS, nurses and other healthcare practitioners.
They identified issues in staff reporting of near misses, errors and incidents of bullying and harrassment.
It comes after the public inquiry into the events at Mid Staffordshire NHS foundation Trust in 2015 where it was found workers were ignored or discouraged from speaking out over serious failings they spotted.
But five years and various webinars and surveys later, one worker said by and large “nothing had changed”. Independent registered nurse Maria Jackson identified in particular how those from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups (BAME) often found it difficult to sound the alarm. “Staff from ethnic minorities are among those to find it difficult to speak up,” she said. “We need a change in culture to allow people to speak up and comment on how we do things. “There is a risk that our people and those in our commissioned services are not able to speak up about their treatment or that of our patients, leading to a detrimental impact of our people and/or patients.” Earlier this month Dr Parag Pandya, a partner at Swanscombe
‘Workers from ethnic minorities are among those to find it very difficult to speak up’
& Bean Partnership, spoke out on the impact on his surgery and said “maybe black and brown doctors are less likely to complain”. Presenting a report to the governing board, Ms Jackson called for practices and services to learn from these cases and take action in the public interest. The report calls for the appointment of “freedom to speak up” guardians to undertake case reviews and “challenge the system”.