Report comment

Report this comment

Fill in the form to report an unsuitable comment. Please state why the comment is of concern. Your feedback will be reviewed by the HSJ team.

Comment

It is time to issue a reverse of the "Nicholson challenge".
So here is a challenge to Sir David.
Sir David: if you believe that staff have a duty to raise concerns about patient welfare or financial probity when they arise, and if you believe that all NHS managers should subscribe to the Nolan Principles of openness and accountability, then you must demonstrate this by waiving all "confidentiality agreements" where these have been imposed on whistleblowers to buy their silence when they have left the NHS. Let those who had concerns tell their stories without fear of retribution so that the truth can be tested and lessons learned.
Then you must identify and discipline every NHS manager who requested and countersigned such agreements - their values and attitudes are clearly inappropriate and unsafe. Protecting the public must be more important than protecting you or ministers from embarrassment (or in extreme cases concealing illegal acts).
And then you must resign, because these clauses were imposed in your name and with your tacit or overt consent.
You should stay just long enough to institute a regime of truth and reconciliation, and then you should go.
You are not fit to fix what you broke.
And you must not take a penny in public money on your way out, nor ever work for the public sector again, unless it is in a voluntary capacity (take your cue from John Profumo).
That is our challenge to you.

Your details

Cancel