A consultant urologist, who repeatedly raised concerns about patient safety at a London hospital, will claim this week that he was victimised by managers and had his warnings ignored.
Mr Ramon Niekrash, 50, will tell the employment tribunal that a reduction of specialist nurses and closure of a specialist urology ward by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Trust damaged the care of patients.
He alleges that the warnings he made in a series of letters about chronic cost-cutting led him to be branded a trouble-maker and excluded from the hospital last year.
Niekrash also questioned the hospital’s ability to provide a safe service and made further allegations of widespread bullying in the surgical directorate when the hospital tried to cut costs.
Queen Elizabeth, in Woolwich, reopened in 2002 after a £93m PFI rebuilding scheme, but declared itself technically insolvent in 2006 after auditors said it was heading for a deficit of £100m by 2008-09. Earlier this year, the hospital merged with two other hospitals to form the South London Healthcare NHS Trust.
Ahead of the employment tribunal hearing in Croydon, Niekrash said: “I would have been failing in my duty as a doctor if I had not brought the matters of patient care and safety to the attention of trust management.
“However, as a result of doing so, I have suffered the consequences and been perceived as a difficult person and trouble-maker.”
Niekrash was the lead for urological cancer between January 2002 and November 2007 and president of the Eastern Urostomy Association.
His lawyer, Arpita Dutt, of employment law firm Russell Jones & Walker, said her client had been victimised for acting in the public interest.
“The NHS’s stance on whistleblowing is clear, but if someone at such a senior level can be treated like this, what message does that send to other employees with concerns to raise?”
The trust denies all the claims and will contest them.
Read more at The Independent.
Read Hospital Dr’s guide to whistleblowing and blog on existing protection for whistleblowers.
Tags: Suspended, Whistleblowing
Whatever has happened to the concept of the profession ‘protecting’ patients? On the face of it, this doctor was doing his duty - pointing out that patient care was being compromised. But then we have recently had a nurse ‘disciplined’ by the NMC for ‘exposing’ poor nursing care. Has the world gone mad?
WE must obviously wait to see ALL the evidence; but if Mr NIekrash’s account is proven to be correct, I hope the profession will call for action against the management.
Retired Orthopod