Lost doctor’s father: The excuses change but the concealment remains the same
The father of a young doctor who died following exhausting shifts says the Scottish Government has again changed its reasons for denying him full access to an official report into junior doctors’ working hours.
Brian Connelly is campaigning to have the findings of a working party report into junior doctors’ hours made public.
His daughter Lauren died after a car crash while driving home from Inverclyde Royal Infirmary in 2011 where she had been working long shifts.
The Scottish Government originally responded to his pleas for an investigation into young doctors’ working hours by setting up an Expert Working Group in 2018 but has so far refused to let him see the unredacted report, completed in January 2020.
After lodging a Freedom of Information (FOI) request in October 2020 the Scottish Government issued him a heavily redacted report. The 21-page document contained 34 redactions, hiding crucial sections such as the executive summary, conclusions and recommendations.
The Scottish Government said it was not in the public interest to publish the information. After Connelly appealed this, a Scottish Government business manager agreed the ruling did not apply to all the redacted material and issued a revised version of the report.
The 40 pages contained slightly more information but also 56 redactions with crucial sections still blanked out.
This time the government cited a second reason for denying a full FOI release stating: “Revealing the advice given by professionals to the government may inhibit the way in which advice is given in the future”. It added that doing so might deter medical other professionals from giving evidence to future studies.
Connelly again appealed to the Information Commissioner, and the Scottish Government has now issued another version of the report containing 36 pages with 30 redactions. Again vital sections remained unpublished.
Connelly said: “This is the third version of the report and in each, the Government has claimed different exemptions.
“The first version used the excuse that early publication of the whole report could colour the views of ministers and officials drawing up changes to shift patterns.
“The second version claims that publication of the findings might deter doctors from giving evidence in future.
“In the third version the government has withdrawn all but one of the original exemptions and given six new exemptions.
“Not only is there no consistency, the government is also being opportunistic as it invents new and unjustified reasons. Nothing less than the publication of the report, unredacted and in full, is needed.”
Dr Lewis Morrison, BMA Scotland chairman, warned doctors were “washed out physically and mentally” after working through the Covid crisis.
The Scottish Government said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has put the NHS under more strain than ever before and we are all indebted to junior doctors and everyone who works in our health service.
“We are currently considering ways in which conditions for junior doctors can be improved, to give them a better work-life balance and ensure they are supported in the work they do. It is our intention to publish the report in full in the near future.”