Editorial Comment:

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, has said the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDA) to gag staff in the NHS will be abolished. His pledge comes after a radiographer who blew the whistle on malpractice won a case against the NHS for forcing her to sign an NDA after she reported a string of missed cancer diagnoses and other concerns. Sue Allison said she was pressured in 2015 into signing two agreements without legal advice, to prevent her from airing her concerns or bringing future claims against the Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.

The date is significant. Two years earlier Jeremy Hunt, then health secretary, announced he would ban NDAS in the NHS. So what happened? And why are we now expected to trust that another health secretary will deliver the promise that his predecessor signally failed to follow through?

It is simply unconscionable that matters literally of life and death are being covered up in this way to spare the blushes of NHS trust managers. A recent FOI request uncovered the widespread and continuing use of NDAS to silence staff about harassment and bullying. Mrs Allison and another colleague say they were ostracised and bullied after raising concerns about practices at the hospital, which was why they filed formal grievances that were subject to the NDA.

Whistleblowers are seen as troublemakers rather than as legitimate barometers of malpractice and poor procedure. Wrongdoing and misconduct are now rightly being challenged in the workplace. But there is nowhere more important for such scrutiny than a hospital. The public will be appalled by this state of affairs. Mr Hancock must do more than make empty promises.