BY

EMAIL

Dr Sarah Wollaston, Chair of Health Committee, 9 January 2015

Dear Dr Wollaston,

Delay in practical redress and related hardship for NHS whistleblowers

I write to make some observations and suggestions in relation to your
letter of 8 January (copied below) to Mrs Sharmila Chowdhury, a
whistleblower with cancer and recent chest pains who is facing
homelessness.

I appreciate your position that Health Committee does not act in
individual cases. However, Mrs Chowdhurys situation raises systemic
issues about the unacceptable delay by the Secretary of State and the
NHS in responding to both Health Committees recommendations of 21
January 2015 and Sir Robert Francis recommendations of 11 February
2015, for harmed whistleblowers to receive practical redress and for
employment to be found for them. You will recall that the issues have
been raised over many years now, and that Mr Hunt was in fact apprised
in detail in of the issues at a meeting nineteen months ago, in June 2014.

Mrs Chowdhury is not the only whistleblower in extremis. I continue to
receive very sad news from whistleblowers who are in despair, living in a
prolonged state of acute stress from watching meagre savings dwindling
or scraping by on credit with no idea of what the future holds for them.

Your letter to Mrs Chowdhury points to what the government is doing in
response to the Freedom to Speak Up Review, but none of the things to
which you refer address the urgent needs of whistleblowers in the
darkest of circumstances. In particular, the re-employment scheme that
you mention is many months from being established. NHS England does
not even intend to consult about a proposed scheme until April. People
will in the meantime lose homes and even more of what little hope they
have managed to eke out.

You also mention that CQC has appointed the National Guardian. If you
are not aware of it, the National Guardian, by policy, will have nothing to
offer sacked whistleblowers who are currently struggling.


You also mention the anti-blacklisting legislation that the government
has introduced. This is a useful step, but it is of little practical utility to
whistleblowers who like Mrs Chowdhury indicates she cannot pay her
mortgage next month, let alone muster the resources to go to Law if she
suffers further discrimination.

In short, there is nothing currently on offer that meets the urgent needs
of whistleblowers suffering the greatest hardship.

I ask Health Committee to urgently hold the Secretary of State to
account for the excessive delay in providing re-employment, and to
press him to urgently make funds available to help those in the greatest
need. I understand that some trusts might create interim posts for
whistleblowers if there is funding. I appreciate that you have helped
whistleblowers as a constituency matter, and I also appreciate that
many other committee members have been supportive of
whistleblowers. I hope Health Committee will ensure that there is fair
play and that whistleblowers do not suffer even more for the
Department of Healths failures to deliver practical help.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Minh Alexander

cc House of Commons Health Committee
Secretary of State for Health
Shadow Secretary of State for Health
Sharmila Chowdhury
Rupa Huq MP


YOUR LETTER TO MS CHOWDHURY

Health Committee
House of Commons London SW1A 0AA
From Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, Chair
Letter by e-mail to Sharmila.chowdhury

8 January 2016

Dear Ms Chowdhury

Thank you for your further correspondence of 17 September and 11
October. I am sorry that it has taken some time to respond.

While I am sorry to hear that your situation remains very difficult, as I
explained when I wrote to you in July, it is outside the Health
Committees remit to take action on individual cases. I am pleased to
learn that you are obtaining assistance from your constituency MP, Rupa
Huq.

As you are aware, in a speech he gave in February last year the Secretary
of State announced that the Government would legislate to protect
whistleblowers applying for NHS jobs from discrimination from
prospective employers and that Monitor, the TDA and NHS England
would provide practical help to whistleblowers seeking future
employment. Those three bodies are currently seeking views on a draft
whistleblowing policy for the NHS and would like to hear from former
and current NHS staff. Details of the consultation are available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment
_data/file/476850/2_national_whistleblowing_policy_and_consultation
_FINAL.pdf

In addition, the Care Quality Commission has just announced that it has
appointed its first national guardian for the freedom to speak up within
the NHS.

I hope that the steps being taken provide some reassurance to you that
progress is being made in this area as the Government responds to
issues raised both in Parliament and by Sir Robert Francis in his
Freedom to Speak Up review.

Yours sincerely
Dr Sarah Wollaston MP
Chair of the Committee