Whistle-blowers set to meet with NHS bosses
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CLINICIANS who lifted the lid on what they allege has been a decade of abuse at NHS Highland hope the organisation’s bosses will acknowledge the "severe bullying" that has gone on in the organisation when they meet next week.
It comes after some of the whistle-blowers who plunged the health authority into crisis over claims of systemic bullying made their first major collective public statement since revealing their concerns just over a month ago.
Dr Iain Kennedy, Dr Alistair Todd and Dr Chris Williams gathered in Inverness alongside the GMB’s Gavin Smith and revealed they were finally willing to meet senior medical managers.
The clinicians agreed to attend a confidential meeting next week as a "gesture of goodwill" – and they have informed Paul Gray, chief executive of NHS Scotland, about the intention.
Dr Kennedy said their reluctance to meet with board members had stemmed from their difficulty envisaging "how this would move things forward, given the fate that has befallen whistle-blowers in the past".
They insisted that the GMB’s Liz Gordon would be present at the meeting along with Dr Todd, who raised his concerns after the original quartet of whistle-blowers revealed their belief that a practice of suppressing criticism, emanating from the top of NHS Highland, had led to a culture of fear and intimidation.
Despite the concession, which was also made to aid "constructive dialogue", the whistle-blowers maintained there would be no softening of their position regarding demands for a public inquiry, a change in culture and for senior figures to be held accountable.
Dr Kennedy said: "We hope that medical managers will be much more open with us and fully acknowledge the severe bullying that has gone on in NHS Highland over the last 10 years.
"And we think the absence of [some] other board executives will help them to be much more open with us. We hope that will be the start of much more open dialogue with our colleagues who are our friends as well as colleagues."
Later on the same day, NHS Highland released a statement calling for "progress" and expressing "frustration" that it had previously been denied a meeting with the whistle-blowers.
The statement from the board read: "We recognise the utmost seriousness of the situation and are prepared to leave no stone unturned to get to the truth. There is clearly an issue of some sort which needs to be understood. We are of the firm opinion that it is surely in everyone’s interest for any allegations to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
"Therefore, we unanimously express our ongoing frustration that we are being denied any substance to the accusations and also that the opportunity to have a mature, responsible and respectful dialogue continues to stall."
Meanwhile, the scale of the challenges facing Scotland’s NHS means that decisive action is needed now to deliver change that will secure the future of the service, a new report by the public spending watchdog has found. According to the Auditor General for Scotland, Caroline Gardner, pressure is building in several areas due to workforce challenges, rising drug costs and a significant maintenance backlog.
In her annual review, she points out NHS boards struggled to achieve unprecedented savings totalling £449.1 million in 2017/18. Among them was NHS Highland which was referred to numerous times in the report.
