An introspective post this week: it has been a rather depressing week not only nationally but locally and this page is the upshot...
I am grateful to Dr Alice O'Neill, @alicerawding, for drawing the first topic to my attention
We should do it, right? We are obligated to speak up if we see unsafe practice or patients at risk, aren't we?
In Domain 2 of "Good Medical Practice" the GMC @gmcuk highlights the need to respond to risks to safety:
Read the story of Dr Chris Day, @drcmday, and then have a long hard think:
This is actually a question we ask at Core Surgery Interviews: what would you do if the next doctor on shift doesn't turn up? Never imagined it would have this result in real life.
Juniors doctors have vanishingly little protection, despite the laudable efforts of Sir Robert Francis and every single thing we learned from the Mid Staffs episode. In fact, as Hunt is hellbent on destroying all safeguards in his imposed contract, junior doctors are now temporary workers with few rights, 'Guardian' or no.
And if that doesn't make you pause, here are some more (in)famous whistleblowing cases:
1) Radiology Manager Sharmila Chowdhury @sharmilaxx
2) Paediatrician Dr David Drew @nhswhistleblowr
3) Cardiologist Dr Raj Mattu
... and 4) the granddaddy of them all, Dr Steve Bolsin, @SteveBolsin, the anaesthetist whose simple audit blew the whistle on paediatric heart surgery in Bristol in 1995
Makes terrible reading, doesn't it. I expect we all think that if we were faced with an untenable position, we would all speak up, safe in the knowledge that we would be protected by that loudly trumpeted "Whistleblowers Policy". Unfortunately we are learning that that Policy can readily be thrown out of the window and it is making for a very unhappy department.
I wonder if we'll find out just how unhappy when the embargo is lifted on the 2015 Staff Survey and it gets published in 23rd February.
I always fill mine out, even though I'm aware it is a futile gesture. The majority of the returns I understand are filled out by non-clinical staff: there is a misconception that because the surveys are bar-coded responses can be traced back to the writer but that is not the case. At least, the things I've written have never come back to bite me. And obviously nothing has changed either.
The bar-codes are to allow Picker to chase up non-responders but it does have the effect in hierarchical clinical structures of putting people off or at the very least being guarded with their responses.
Junior Doctors' Contract
Hunt was always going to impose this, wasn't he. No matter what agreements Sir David Dalton made with @theBMA. Quite certain it will fail its Equality Impact Assessment as it is outrageously unfair to anyone on career breaks (eg maternity leave) but the enormous message it sends out about the disposability of the workforce is horrifying. Thank goodness he's commissioning an Enquiry into Junior Doctor Morale. How else will we have a clue as to why 54,000 educated intelligent people are unhappy (?!)
Goodbye of the Week
Sr Fletcher @12dargue wanted to steal away with little fuss after 29 years of NHS service. Ha ha.
Obligatory departmental tea party followed by the much more traditionally Orthopaedic wake in the pub...
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