The Times April 30 2015
Fifty doctors urge the main political parties to properly protect NHS staff who blow the whistle on unsafe care
Sir, All main parties say the health service is a priority. Yet political pledges to save the NHS and to invest in the health service are hollow and meaningless as long as politicians allow staff to be victimised, putting patient safety at risk.
There have been numerous cases where dedicated staff in the NHS have been victimised or unfairly sacked for blowing the whistle on poor or unsafe care. Sir Robert Francis in his recent report on whistleblowers said many had been subjected to “kangaroo courts”. Sir Robert also noted that black and minority ethnic staff were more likely to be victimised than staff from a white background.
We urge party leaders to acknowledge their moral and ethical duty to treat all NHS staff fairly in order to ensure safety and quality of care, to ensure zero tolerance for the misuse of disciplinary procedures to punish staff who raise patient safety concerns and to make a specific pledge that there will be a major overhaul of NHS disciplinary procedure.
Professor Parveen Kumar CBE, Consultant Physician
Dr Clare Gerada MBE, Chair – Founders Network
Dr Ramesh Mehta, President British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin
Dr Kumar Kotegaonkar MBE, General Practitioner
Professor Barbara Wilson OBE, Consultant Neuropsychologist
Dr Kailash Chand OBE, General Practitioner, Past-Chair NHS Trust
Dr Davinder Kapur MBE, Forensic Medical Officer
Dr Syed Abidi MBE, Public Health Specialist
Dr Satya Sharma MBE, General Practitioner
Dr J S Bamrah, Medical Director, National Chair British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin
Dr Parag Singhal, Honorary Secretary, British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin
Dr Santosh Mudholkar, General Secretary, British Indian Psychiatric Association
Dr Kim Holt, Founder of PatientsFirst, Consultant Paediatrician
Lady Maha Yassaie, Consultant Pharmacist
Professor Michael Kopelman, Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychiatry
Professor Narinder Kapur, Consultant Neuropsychologist
Dr Umesh Prabhu, Medical Director
Dr A Sajayan, Consultant Anaesthetist
Dr Abrar Hussain, Consultant Psychiatrist
Dr Aditya Agrawal, Consultant Surgeon
Dr Amit Kocchar, Associate Specialist, ENT
Dr Anita Mittal, Consultant Paediatrician
Dr Ankur Khandewal, General Practitioner
Dr Aruj Qayum, General Practitioner
Dr Arvind Shah, Consultant Paediatrician
Dr David Drew, Consultant Paediatrician
Dr Hasmukh Shah, General Practitioner
Dr Keshav Singhal, Consultant in Trauma and Orthopaedics
Dr Madan Samuel, Consultant Paediatric Surgeon
Dr Manjit Suchdev, General Practitioner
Dr Minh Alexander, Consultant Psychiatrist
Dr Naranjan Khosa, General Practitioner
Dr Philip Abraham, Consultant Community Paediatrician
Dr Rajan Madhok, Public Health Consultant
Dr Rajendra Chaudhary, Medicolegal Advisor, Doctors and Dentists Protection Union
Dr Ravi Mene, General Practitioner
Dr Sanchit Mehendale, Consultant in Trauma and Orthopaedics
Dr Sangeetha Kolpattil, Consultant Radiologist
Dr Satheesh Mathew, Consultant Paediatrician
Dr Shyam Kumar, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon
Dr Narveshwar Sinha, General Practitioner
Dr Stephen Kemp, Consultant Neuropsychologist
Dr Suresh Rao, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon
Dr Veronica Bradley, Consultant Neuropsychologist
Dr Vishal Sahni, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon
Dr Vivek Chhabra, Speciality Doctor, Emergency Medicine
Dr Yusuf Khan, GP Trainee
Dr Ramankutty Sreekumar, Consultant in Trauma & Orthopaedics
Dr V Muraleedharan, Consultant Physician
Dr Mahnaz Alsharif, General Practitioner
SHARMILA CHOWDHURY 
Asking them to protect wb is like leaving the fox into the chicken coop isnt strange that both parties only use you to beat the other with they are all trying to sell of the nhs and having wb isnt for them jeff3
Is there any incentive or any fear of sanctions for the NHS management to behave otherwise against whistleblowers? In my case the management was awarded discretionary point on salary at the time when they were negotiating settlement with public money at a judicial mediation with a gag to prevent my ET claim of victimisation for whistleblowing going any further. I won my subsequent and further ET claim of victimisation in 2014. I am effectively blacklisted by the same management who presided over a cover up 9 years ago. The political parties will surely be happy to see such cover ups within NHS no matter what the rhetorics are. The laws need a complete overhaul and so does the ET, when hearing or deciding on cases of whistleblowing on clinical/professional issues. Cultural change will take time.
Suggest readers to visit http://m.youtube.com/watch? v=PSMiewXWSgg
and watch questions by MSPs Adam Ingram and Neil Findlay.
We have the Laws in place, the problems occur when people in power do not abide by the Laws of the Land, this creates corruption, destruction and instability.
However
As stated by James Maurici, in the Modern Approach to Bias,
The abandonment of a very important distinction between bias as a result of an interest (be it financial or otherwise) and the notice of pre-determination.
My own thoughts are the Modern Approach to Bias adopted by the Court of Appeal needs to be redressed.