14.02.13
Whistleblower raised safety fears four years ago
One of the highest-profile NHS whistleblowers has broken a gagging clause by speaking out on how he was paid thousands to hold his silence over patient safety concerns at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust.
Gary Walker was chief executive of the trust – which is now part of Sir Bruce Keogh’s investigation into high mortality at some hospitals – until he was sacked in February 2010. He spoke to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning.
The official reason for his dismissal was because he swore openly at meetings, but he claims that the East Midlands SHA ordered him to meet an 18-week non-emergency target, “whatever the demand” and was told to resign when he refused. Walker accepted the gag as part of a settlement package of an unfair dismissal claim – thought to be up to £500,000 – to protect his family.
The trust is currently being investigated amid fears that poor care has led to as many as 500 unnecessary patient deaths.
Walker said that he had raised concerns over patient safety four years ago with NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson.
He told Today: “This is a culture of fear, a culture of oppression – of information that’s either going to embarrass a civil servant or embarrass a minister.
“These are big problems. And if you consider that the people that have been running the NHS have created that culture of fear, they need either to be held to account or new people need to be brought in to change that culture.”
Chairman of the Commons health select committee Stephen Dorrell MP has called for a new criminal offence to combat the practice of gagging NHS employees from speaking out over patient safety.
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