A nurse who secretly filmed for the BBC to reveal the neglect of elderly patients at a hospital has been struck off for misconduct.
Margaret Haywood, 58, filmed at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton for a BBC Panorama programme in July 2005.
She was struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council which said she failed to "follow her obligations as a nurse".
Ms Haywood, a nurse for over 20 years, said she thought she had been treated harshly and had put patients first.
Now, I have never thought deeply about whistle blowing before. In the previous times I have seen it, it has usually been done by members of the public service who are unhappy with a government's decision, and have then leaked that information to the press. This, I must admit, I have not always felt comfortable with. This story has led me to take a new look at whistle blowers in general. This highly experience nurse saw the terrible level of care her patients were receiving from the hospital and other staff members and worked with the media to bring this information to light. Now she has been struck off the nursing register for it, on the basis that her filming of patients was without their consent. 'OK', so I thought, 'well, we don't want ourselves being shown in these kind of situations on national television without our consent'. However, it turns out that the BBC obtained the consent of everyone who appeared on television (or their relatives if the patient was in no state to give informed consent).
As far as I can see, both the BBC and the nurse acted both correctly and with integrity. It is deeply worrying that if there are (and I'm sure we can all accept that there are) failings within the public health system that anyone who tries to bring attention to this is not only fired from their job but struck off the medical register. It is disappointing that the Labour Government's vaunted whistle blowers protection system has failed to utterly miserably.
If we need a strong and independent media for a fully formed democracy, we need to make sure people cannot be have such an extreme sanction placed upon them simply for speaking out about a situation such as this. This culture of punishing the whistle blower breeds and nurtures the faceless unaccountable bureaucracy who cannot be brought to account by those they serve, and cannot have their failings brought to public light. Only by lifting the rock on the failings of the NHS, or any other public service provider, can we (the taxpayer - remember us?) be certain that our fellow human beings are receiving the level of care they deserve, and also that we are getting value for the billions we pump into our public services.
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