Health trust backs whistle blowers

BRIDGEWATER Community Healthcare NHS Trust – the organisation which provides community health services across Warrington – has lent its support a “Speak out Safely” campaign.
The campaign, organised by the Nursing Times, encourages all NHS staff to raise any genuine patient safety concerns within their organisation at the earliest opportunity.
Chief executive Dr Kate Fallon said: “Patient safety is our prime concern and we believe our staff are often best placed to identify where care may be falling below the standard our patients deserve.
“In order to ensure our high standards continue to be met, we want every member of our staff to feel able to raise concerns with their line manager, or another member of the management team.
“We want everyone in the organisation to feel able to highlight wrongdoing or poor practice when they see it and to be confident that their concerns will be addressed in a constructive way.”
Staff should communicate issues without fear of prejudice verbally with their line manager or another member of the management team, or utilise the policies that are available to all Bridgewater staff.
The Speak out Safely campaign promises that where staff identify a genuine patient safety concern, they will not be treated with prejudice and they will not suffer any detriment to their career.
Instead, the organisation will support them, fully investigate and, if appropriate, act on their concern. The Trust will also give them feedback about how it has responded to the issue they have raised, as soon as possible.
In signing up to the campaign, Bridgewater supports the principle that it is not disloyal to colleagues to raise concerns; it is a duty to patients.
The Trust says misconduct or malpractice should never be tolerated, while mistakes and poor practice may reveal a colleague needs more training or support, or that the organisation needs to change systems or processes.