Daily Insight: An appointment with abuse

Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust has said its staff have been verbally abused when contacting some patients to postpone their appointments because of next week’s Royal College of Nursing strikes.

In a statement posted on its website yesterday, it said: “It is very regrettable that we have to report that our staff have been verbally abused when contacting some patients to postpone their appointments.”

“We do not tolerate abuse of our staff and abuse will be noted and further action may be taken,” it added. 

The RCN strikes will now run from 8pm on 30 April to midnight on 1 May after a High Court judge ruled the action was partly unlawful, instead of the 48-hour walkout originally planned. 

The trust said it had rescheduled some appointments and elective inpatient and day case procedures across its four hospitals in Oxford and Banbury “to ensure patient safety”. 

However, it will provide urgent and emergency care “wherever possible”. The RCN is planning no derogations to its walkout next week, whereas its previous action has exempted emergency care. 

An OUH spokesperson explained that the “aggressive verbal abuse” has included “profanity and raised voices”.

The security team and senior members of nursing staff may write to patients who verbally abuse staff to “acknowledge the incident and remind them that this behaviour will not be tolerated”, they added. 

Matt finish

Senior leaders are leaving NHS England in droves as the organisation continues its restructure.

The latest director to announce his departure is Matt Whitty, the regulator’s director of innovation, research and life sciences.

It’s unknown if Mr Whitty’s decision to leave NHSE is related to the ongoing headcount reduction programme, but his new job is outside the NHS – more specifically an Israeli tech firm named MD Clone.

It’s also unclear whether the appointment of Cambridge University Hospitals FT CEO Roland Sinker to an unpaid director role has had any bearing on Mr Whitty’s decision.

NHSE’s transformation director Tim Ferris heaped praise on Mr Whitty’s four-year tenure, highlighting a number of achievements by his team, including more than 1.8 million patients accessing innovations supported through Mr Whitty’s department.

Whatever the reasons, Mr Whitty’s departure – due later this year – will leave a gap in the NHS’ innovation and research department at a time when the health service needs to capitalise on the opportunities offered by these sectors.

Details of his replacement will be announced in “due course”, Dr Ferris said.