NEWS
NHS whistle-blower support scheme to roll out across the country
The NHS in England is to roll out dedicated support for members of staff who raise the alarm on unsafe practice. Following successful pilots, the NHS will soon offer practical support to any doctor, nurse, or other worker across the country who needs additional support to build their career after raising concerns at work, as part of the NHS Long Term Plan to improve care and treatment.
The scheme will offer staff career coaching, shadowing opportunities, work experience, CV writing advice, interview skills practice and resilience training to former or current members of staff who have blown the whistle on poor practice.
The move to ramp up support for whistle-blowers is part of a package of measures to put a renewed focus on the wellbeing of patients under NHS care and follows publication earlier this year of a world- first patient safety strategy, which included a requirement for every local health service to have a dedicated patient safety specialist. Evidence shows that health services delivering a higher quality of patient care are more likely to have a positive speaking up culture.
Simon Stevens, NHS chief executive said:
“NHS staff raise concerns because they care about our patients, and every member of our workforce – midwife, therapist, cleaner, surgeon or receptionist – who spots and reports poor practice should be supported to help put things right. “The NHS Long Term Plan sets out a world- leading package of measures to improve patients’ treatment and care, but we must keep getting the basics right, which is why we produced the first ever national patient safety strategy, are making it easier for our people to report problems and are taking steps to show our clinicians and other staff the same duty of care that we offer patients.” The launch of the career support scheme follows two pilot projects started in 2017 which offered targeted support to 16 people who left the health service after they raised concerns about their organisation, with one in three successfully helped to retain or regain employment in the NHS. Progress in recent years has been
supported by Freedom to Speak Up Guardians – members of staff in each local part of the health service responsible for helping improve openness in reporting problems – who are now well established in Trusts, with funding for the posts tripling and Guardians handling more
than 19,000 cases. Prerana Issar, chief people officer for the NHS, said: “Making the NHS the best place to work is vital for our staff and means better care for our patients. “Our staff shouldn’t have to think twice before blowing the whistle on poor practice, but too often nurses, doctors and other important workers worry about the impact on their own career so helping our world-class workforce to play a leading role in spotting and stopping problems as they arise will make the health service even safer as we deliver the NHS Long Term Plan.” As well as making it easier for staff to tackle problems, the NHS is taking steps to stamp out risks, with the new patient safety strategy supporting clinicians to halve medicine errors and continue to reduce the number of stillbirths.
A national patient safety reporting system will allow staff, patients and families the chance to report incidents on their mobile phones, while the new Medical Examiner System being rolled out across the country will give every bereaved family the opportunity to discuss any concerns about their loved ones care with an independent doctor.
Toolkit ensures pregnant women get the right hospital treatment
A new acute care toolkit from the Royal College of Physicians and the Society of Acute Medicine provides practical guidance for healthcare staff caring for pregnant women with an urgent medical problem like chest or heart pain, breathlessness or severe headache. Pregnant women going to hospital with an urgent medical problem will probably be seen first by a specialist in acute care rather than a specialist in pregnancy, so it’s important that the acute care team have a good understanding of how medical problems can appear in pregnant women and how to diagnose, treat and manage the medical problem while looking after the health of both the mother and the baby. Managing acute medical problems in pregnancy explains the differences in the way that common urgent medical problems present themselves in pregnant women, the tests that can be carried out safely, and the different results that can be expected, for some of the more common medical conditions. It will help healthcare staff unfamiliar with the normal physiology of pregnancy to ensure they don’t miss any signs or symptoms because they don’t appear in the same way as they do in
in this area for women who experience symptoms during this time and the acute healthcare team should be able to easily refer patients who need help with these conditions.
The toolkit has a number of women who aren’t pregnant. The toolkit also advises healthcare staff to
take the opportunity to ask about a woman’s mental wellbeing when she comes to hospital for other reasons during or after pregnancy. Mental illness can affect anyone, but those with a history of mental health problems such as postnatal psychosis and bipolar affective disorder are more likely to develop new symptoms during pregnancy and the post-birth period, even if they have been well for a number of years. Anxiety and depression are also common. Specialist perinatal psychiatric services have expertise
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recommendations to help both the acute care team and the obstetric team work together to ensure safe and joined-up care for pregnant women. Dr John Dean, RCP clinical director for quality improvement and patient safety, who is series editor for the Acute Care Toolkits, said: “We know that women who present with urgent medical conditions during pregnancy don’t always get the care and treatment they need. It can be because staff are more cautious in how to interpret information, or in what investigations or treatments are safe during pregnancy and breast feeding. This can lead to significant harm to both the mother and baby. “This toolkit is a concise guide for physicians and other healthcare staff on how to plan and deliver care at these times for these women, so they can get the best treatment.”
A copy of the toolkit is available free to download from the RCP website.
NOVEMBER 2019
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