Support floods in for whistleblowing nurse

Published on Saturday 18 April 2009 20:03

NURSES have rallied to help press for the reinstatement of a whistleblower who was struck off for secretly filming patients being neglected, it emerged yesterday.

An online petition set up by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in support of Margaret Haywood has attracted more than 260 signatures so far.

And more than 300 people have joined five separate groups on Facebook backing Haywood, who was struck off by a Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) panel in central London on Thursday.

The 58-year-old, from Liverpool, recorded conditions at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, East Sussex, for the BBC's Panorama programme in July 2005.

The RCN said: "Messages of support have been flooding in … we encourage fellow nurses and the public to show their support for Margaret."

The NMC panel told Haywood her misconduct was a "major breach" of the profession's code and "it would not be in the public interest for her to be able to practise as a nurse".

Roger Goss, co-director of patient campaign group Patient Concern, said yesterday: "This action has evoked almost universal condemnation. Every present or future patient needs the chance to sign this petition."

He added: "We believe Margaret was wholly justified in exposing terrible conditions at her hospital that the public deserved to know about.

"It was the only way in the end that she could get any action to help relieve her patients' suffering when the official internal reporting channels failed her."

The documentary, titled Undercover Nurse, included covert filming inside the hospital between November 3, 2004 and May 5, 2005, which showed several examples of neglect. These included footage of elderly patient Gilbert Hatton sitting in clothes he had soiled the night before.

Haywood, a nurse for over 20 years, is considering taking an appeal to the High Court, which must be done within 28 days of the decision.