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An MP who helped introduce legislation to protect whistleblowers at work has told tonight's Panorama: Who'd Be An NHS Whistleblower? on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One that NHS staff should be able to speak out.

Tony Wright MP (Cannock Chase, Staffordshire) worked on the Public Interest Disclosure Act of 1998.

In the wake of the Stafford hospital and the Margaret Haywood cases, he says: "The whole point of introducing whistleblower provisions was that someone had got somewhere to go so they could raise these concerns quite properly without threatening their job, without damaging their career and indeed without having to go to the media."

Tony Wright says: "The Government should revisit the guidance – but we know Stafford cases and I suspect other cases too – what is said in terms of guidance and what happens on the ground is probably very, very different."

A survey by the group which runs the NHS helpline for staff suggests that nurses would like to see a review: 38% of nurses said they suffered serious or lasting damage to their career for raising their concern. Of those, 36% said the serious risk they identified went on to cause harm to patients.

Margaret Haywood, who worked on the Panorama programme Undercover Nurse, was recently struck off the nursing register for filming patients without their permission while exposing poor care provided at the Sussex hospital in Brighton.

She says she raised her concerns with the ward manager but nothing was done.

Of her decision to film undercover, Margaret Haywood says: "There was no other way of doing it really. I didn't take the decision lightly, I did look into it, I did give it an awful lot of thought and I knew, you know, that my position would be compromised by doing it – but I think the public needed to be aware of what was going on on the ward. They're putting their relatives in there believing them to be cared for and that wasn't happening."

A Health Commission report on care at the Stafford General Hospital, according to Health Secretary Alan Johnson MP, "details astonishing failures at every level".

Tony Wright says: "Nurses couldn't have been happy working in that situation – doctors must have been appalled at the fact they could not deliver a proper level of care. Why weren't they jumping up and down?"

Dr Richard Taylor, a hospital consultant for many years and now MP for Wyre Forest, believes – while there may be whistleblower legislation on paper – the culture of fear still exists across many parts of the NHS with people afraid raise issues within hospitals.

"They're frightened because they've got their jobs, their salaries, their prospects they fear depend on the good word from the managers and if the managers are more focused on targets, financial deficits, then they are frightened to go to them."

Dr Richard Taylor adds: "I think the whistleblowing policies we've got at the moment are absolutely inadequate or else people wouldn't be coming to me as an MP instead as going to their immediate bosses."

Dr Peter Carter, Chief Executive, Royal College of Nursing, says: "Ultimately I think people have a responsibility to protect vulnerable people and if that means going to the media – I think that's justified."

Families of patients featured in Panorama's Undercover Nurse, shown in 2005, have defended Margaret Haywood's participation in the investigation and are featured in Monday's programme.

Julie Bailey's mother Bella was treated at Stafford General Hospital.

She says: "If we had known what was going on in that hospital – if they'd had spoke out about what was going on in that hospital – none of us would have put our relatives in there. We would never have put our trust in those people."

Waida, a friend of a patient featured in the film, says: "I couldn't believe it actually, I was shocked, there's somebody who did us all a favour who did the nation a favour and to be punished like that – really that's unacceptable."

Stuart Burnham, a relative of elderly woman featured in the original investigation, said: "I was absolutely disgusted with the verdict – it shouldn't have been Margy on trial – it should have been the people who run that hospital and the supervisors at the hospital, they were the ones that were wrong because they were the ones that weren't doing their jobs properly."

Last week the Chief Executive of the Royal Sussex County Hospital wrote saying: "We have worked extremely hard to improve standards in every area of our hospitals. Our survival rates are in the best 20% of hospitals in England. The quality of our services were also rated 'excellent' by the Healthcare Commission. We apologised unreservedly that in 2004 we allowed standards to fall. I can assure you that we are working extremely hard to deliver safe and high quality clinical care and to ensure we treat our patients and the carers with kindness and compassion."

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust told Panorama that "quality of care" is now its "primary concern". It is investing £12million in extra "frontline clinical staff", improved training and facilities, and has published a new "no blame... whistleblowing policy" that aims to "bring poor practice out in the open."

Panorama: Who'd Be An NHS Whistleblower?, 8.30pm, Monday 27 April 2009, ´óÏó´«Ã½ One

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