Whistleblower nurse struck off for filming hospital's neglect of elderly patients

This case has been widely reported both in the press and on the radio and TV. Nurse Haywood had voiced her concerns on more than one occasion through her line managers but has said that nothing was really taken on board. She had assisted the BBC's Panorama programme in providing evidence of the poor treatment of patients because she believed publicity was needed and would do some good, and that she was not getting anywhere trying to get action through the recommended channels.

Part of the criticism of her actions is that the patients she filmed could have been identified/recognised, and that therefore she had breached her professional duty of confidentiality towards them. My personal opinion of this is that the Panorama producers should have safeguarded her from such criticism, and safeguarded the vulnerable, elderly patients' privacy and dignity, by pixilating the faces in the photographs or by some other means made them unidentifiable. The BBC has access to the best advice and they should have sought the best advice on this matter and not allowed this brave lady to suffer the loss of her livelihood and professional reputation when she had the best of intentions and as a result of her courage some reform is likely.

The chair of the Nursing and Midwifery Council panel that found Margaret Haywood guilty of misconduct and made the decision to strike her off the register of nurses, admitted that the conditions on the ward were dreadful but claims that it was not necessary to breach confidentiality to seek to improve them by the method chosen. I suspect there would be few who would agree with her judgment, whether within or outside the nursing profession.

Senior members of Miss Haywood's profession should be seeking to enable dedicated, caring nurses like her to be taken notice of when they report failings in health care provision and to have the assurance that action will be taken.

Whistleblowers have a very hard time of it and I think that is deplorable.

Margaret Wilde www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk