NHS England guidance calls for GP whistleblowers by 2017

Draft guidance published by NHS England directs that all GP practices must appoint a whistleblower by April 2017.

Under the plans, each primary care provider should provide a named individual which staff can turn to to raise concerns and receive support. The guidance specifies that the new ’freedom to speak up guardian’ has to be ’independent of the line management chain and not the direct employer’.

The guidance follows recommendations made by Sir Robert Francis in his report, Freedom to Speak Up, which investigated the culture of bullying in the NHS. Francis’ report suggested that the GP contract should include a standard for allowing staff to ‘raise concerns freely’.

NHS England’s draft guidance instructs that each provider should name an individual, who is independent of the line management chain and is not the direct employer, as the Freedom to Speak Up Guardian; NHS primary care providers should be proactive in preventing any inappropriate behaviour, like bullying or harassment, or discrimination towards staff who raise a concern; and all NHS primary care providers should review and update their local policies and procedures by March 2017, to align with the agreed guidance.

Neil Churchill, NHS England’s director for patient experience, said: “This guidance builds on existing good practice, gives staff in primary care more options to share any concerns and sets out our expectations about how those concerns should be handled.”

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, General Practice Committee (GPC) chair, argued: “The real elephant in the room is how we can whistleblow regarding concerns to the wider system problems GPs face, such as inappropriate demands being made of them - like being asked to arrange patient care and prescribe beyond their competence and being asked to take part in schemes with perverse incentives.

“This focuses on the microcosm of the GP practice. The far bigger issue here is not being determined in practices but in the wider environment.”