Nurse axed for abuse exposé wants NHS to help whistleblowers

Published on Thursday 16 April 2009 22:02

A NURSE who was struck off after she secretly filmed the neglect of patients called yesterday for a review of how the NHS deals with whistleblowers, claiming that nurses were afraid to speak out.

Margaret Haywood, who broke down as she was struck off after a hearing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), said she was "absolutely devastated" by the decision.

She insisted that recording the appalling conditions at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton for the BBC's Panorama programme in July 2005 was the right thing to do.

But the NMC panel told the 58-year-old, who has been a nurse for more than 20 years, that 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".

Speaking after the hearing, Ms Haywood, of Liverpool, said: "There was no other way of getting the full picture. I am absolutely devastated and upset by it all. I think I have been treated very harshly. It is a serious issue and I knew it was a risk I was taking, but I thought the filming … was in the public interest.

"I did voice my concerns through my immediate line manager and I also went to my ward manager, but nothing was really taken on board."

Ms Haywood, who was found guilty of misconduct yesterday, said she had "owed it to the people on the ward" to expose the neglect.

Referring to a Healthcare Commission report into the "shocking" state of affairs at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust last month that found "appalling conditions" at Stafford Hospital, Ms Haywood called for a review of the system for NHS whistleblowers.

"The whole process needs to be reviewed so nurses can make it easier to voice their concerns," she said.

A Royal College of Nursing spokesman said: "It is absolutely vital that healthcare staff at all levels feel they can raise concerns about poor patient care with their managers. Those in charge must put robust systems in place which allow staff to voice their concerns."

Earlier at the hearing, Linda Read, the panel's chairman, said: "Although the conditions on the ward were dreadful, it was not necessary to breach confidentiality to seek to improve them by the method chosen."

She went on: "The registrant embarked on filming many vulnerable, elderly patients, knowing that it was unlikely that they would be able to give any meaningful consent to that process, in circumstances where their dignity was most compromised."

The documentary, Undercover Nurse, included covert filming inside the Royal Sussex Hospital between 3 November, 2004 and 5 May, 2005, which showed examples of neglect.