Gag order ban for NHS staff who blow whistle
Workers will not be silenced if they lift the lid on failings, promises Health Secretary
Sarah Knapton
Tommy Greene Non-disclosure agreements that silence whistleblowers will be banned by the NHS, the Health Secretary has promised, after a radiographer had her “gagging order” overturned.
Matt Hancock told The Daily Telegraph he was “determined to end” the injustice of making health service staff choose between speaking out to protect patients or keeping their job.
“Whistleblowers perform a vital and courageous service for the NHS and I want more people to feel they can put their head above the parapet,” he said.
“Settlement agreements that infringe on an individual’s right to speak out for the benefit of patients are completely inappropriate. We stand with whistleblowers. Making someone choose between the job they love and speaking the truth to keep patients safe is an injustice I am determined to end.”
His comments come after radiographer Sue Allison, 57, successfully argued that she had been asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) without legal advice after raising concerns about missed cancer diagnoses and standards of care in a breast screening unit at Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.
Mrs Allison filed a grievance against the trust claiming she was ostracised and subjected to extensive bullying after blowing the whistle in 2012 and had struggled to find a job since.
However, the trust argued the case could not be heard because the gagging order prevented her from speaking about the details at a tribunal, an argument rejected this month.
At an employment tribunal hearing in Manchester, Judge Rebecca Howard ruled that the NDA was invalid and said Mrs Allison had a “prima facie case of whistleblowing detriment” and should be allowed to press ahead with her grievance without being gagged. Her legal team believes it sets a precedent over the legality of such orders.
Jahad Rahman, Mrs Allison’s solicitor, said: “As the NDA was rightly determined to be invalid, the saga of bullying, harassment and victimisation can now be heard at the future hearing.
“The case exposes the ongoing misuse of gagging orders by the NHS and it is possible that there are many other cases where gags are similarly not valid. This has been an extremely stressful experience for my client. She has had to put up with regular threats of costs and intimidation by the trust’s lawyers for several months. The trust has fought this case tooth and nail and has spent a considerable amount of public funds on defending the claim.
“It’s a humiliating ruling for Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust and clearly a victory for common sense. For a large NHS trust to victimise staff that speak out about public safety issues and to then blacklist that employee is deeply concerning.”
Mrs Allison, who qualified 34 years ago, said her career had been destroyed since blowing the whistle in 2012.
She said she had applied for a number of posts both within and outside of the trust, and said her whistleblowing past had been brought up in job interviews by potential employers.
Unable to find another secure job, she currently works 12 hours a week and is studying for a PHD.
Morecambe Bay proffered the NDA
NHS executives have described Theresa May’s post-brexit immigration strategy as the “most destructive policy proposal for NHS recruitment” amid fears it could force some hospitals to close 25 per cent of services, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
Senior health officials said the Government’s proposals for a £30,000 salary threshold on workers moving to the UK was “appalling” and could jeopardise efforts to attract the 50,000 nurses required by the health service.
This newspaper has been leaked the minutes and a transcript of a high-level meeting between NHS and Whitehall officials in January, which lays bare the opposition to Mrs May’s flagship immigration policy.
During the meeting, officials from the Department for Health, NHS bodies and a hospital trust discussed the implications that the policy could have on the recruitment of foreign staff.
At one point an NHS director claimed that a “£30,000 limit is the most destructive policy proposal for NHS recruitment I’ve heard of,” to which an another attendee responded: “and the entire UK”.
The minutes also reveal that the officials raised concerns about the additional pressures that could be placed on NHS services as a result of the policy being implemented. It is described as particularly “awful for social care”.
The disclosures come on the back of a prolonged Cabinet row over the Government’s immigration white paper, the publication of which was repeatedly delayed last year due to disagreement between ministers. While the Prime Minister is in favour of a higher salary cap to reduce the flow of lowskilled workers into Britain, ministers including Sajid Javid and Philip Hammond are believed to have warned it will severely restrict the NHS and the wider public sector from recruiting staff after Brexit.
The proposals have now been put out to a lengthy consultation.
Leaders from multiple health service bodies were present at the meeting, including Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, Georgina Dwight, director of international healthcare at NHS Professionals, and Ged Byrne, director of global engagement at Health Education England.
They were joined by officials from the Department for Health and Social Care, Ben Morrin, the workforce director of University College London Hospitals Trust, and it was chaired by Stephen Dorrell, the former health secretary.
In a section referred to as “challenges”, the officials are said to have emphasised that “trusts would most appreciate solutions around immigration policy”.
“If you’ve got a nurse qualification you can earn a living anywhere in the world, and if the UK doesn’t wish to be competitive … it will lose out,” they said.
‘Nurses can earn a living anywhere in the world and if the UK doesn’t want to be competitive, it will lose out’