Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
A “climate of fear” pervades the NHS, warns a report by Robert Francis QC. Over 19,000 NHS staff gave evidence that speaking out about poor care is a career-threatening risk. Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, responded by promising a whistleblowers’ protection law before the election: “The message must go out that we are calling time on bullying, intimidation and victimisation which has no place in our NHS.”
Quite right. But Hunt might ask where this “climate of fear” comes from? He points the finger at others below him, but bullying starts at the top. Every Monday at midday Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England, is summoned – along with the heads of Monitor, the NHS regulator and the Trust Development Authority – to name and shame any laggard hospital failing to hit targets. No 10 sends in Sir Jeremy Heywood, Eric Pickles and Francis Maude to oversee this: bad news from the NHS, and heads roll. Hunt hands it on down, personally calling the manager of any hospital breaching the four-hour emergency targets, or operation waiting times, and terrifying the life out of them. In his office he shows off his noticeboard with “Never Events” listing medical disasters, with no matching board for “Excellent Events” – all stick, no carrot. He is bully-in-chief.
http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...unt-nhs-bully-in-chief-health-secretary-staff
Quite right. But Hunt might ask where this “climate of fear” comes from? He points the finger at others below him, but bullying starts at the top. Every Monday at midday Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England, is summoned – along with the heads of Monitor, the NHS regulator and the Trust Development Authority – to name and shame any laggard hospital failing to hit targets. No 10 sends in Sir Jeremy Heywood, Eric Pickles and Francis Maude to oversee this: bad news from the NHS, and heads roll. Hunt hands it on down, personally calling the manager of any hospital breaching the four-hour emergency targets, or operation waiting times, and terrifying the life out of them. In his office he shows off his noticeboard with “Never Events” listing medical disasters, with no matching board for “Excellent Events” – all stick, no carrot. He is bully-in-chief.
http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...unt-nhs-bully-in-chief-health-secretary-staff