This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Doctors 'told not to discuss PPE shortages'
WhistleblowersUK has revealed that more than 100 healthcare workers had contacted them since the beginning of March, raising concerns about coronavirus and PPE.
The BBC has also revealed that its Newsnight programme has views evidence of pressure being applied to doctors to not share concerns they have about shortages of PPE.
A newsletter sent out to staff at one trust suggested subjects for tweets, such as thanking staff for their hard work, paying tribute to retired NHS staff who had returned to the workforce and retweeting posts from the trust's account. It specified that staff were to avoid ‘commenting on political issues, such as PPE’.
Another NHS trust put up posters in hospital staff areas which told healthcare workers not to ‘make public appeals for equipment, donations or volunteers’.
Georgina Halford-Hall, chief executive at Whistleblowing UK, said: “The system is completely broken. What we see time and time again in the evidence that comes back is that when an individual has raised a concern it goes straight to HR, who immediately begin to investigate the whistle-blower and look for things that they're doing wrong rather than looking at the actual issues that they're raising. The default position is an auto-immune response against the whistle-blower, and not - absolutely no intention whatsoever - to investigate or look into the allegations that they make."
Dr Jenny Vaughan, law and policy lead at campaigning organisation Doctors' Association UK, said: “These are people who had tried the right channels. These are people genuinely raising concerns who went to the people who should have listened to them and felt either they couldn't raise a concern or they weren't listened to. If you have a transparent, open culture of reporting and people feel free that they can speak up about safety concerns, it saves lives."
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