Whistleblowing reports increase again

Whistleblowing reports at the county’s main NHS Trust have more doubled in number every year since 2017, a report says.

A total of 302 concerns were raised through the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust “Freedom to Speak Up” system last year.

Governance and Communications chief Anna Milanec notes that 65 cases were about patient safety and service quality and 39 were about staff safety. She acknowledges it is “troubling” to receive these, but adds that it is encouraging that “colleagues feel more comfortable to speak up” and the reporting system is more visible and widely-known within the trust.

The trust board will discuss Ms Milanec’s report on Thursday, May 6.

She writes that the 2020-21 total of 302 compares to 145 the previous year, 66 in 2018-19 and 32 in 2017-18.

Last year’s figures included 74 cases classed as “behavioural / relationship” and 40 tagged as “bullying harassment”, making them the commonest and third most common types of concern.

“The behaviours and bullying described to FTSU are at all levels and can often take the form of breakdowns in relationships between just two members of staff,” Ms Milanec writes.

She adds that formal investigations have been launched “in areas that have long standing problems”, medication has been organised by managers in some cases and behaviour workshops have been rolled out trust-wide since September 2020. Ninety-three of the trust’s 300 teams have already taken part in at least one of these workshops, Ms Milanec adds.

“Patient safety / quality” was the second most common category in 2020-21, with 65 reports.

Ms Milanec notes that junior doctors in training are considered nationally to be “one of the hardest groups to engage with”, so describes it as a “positive step” that, at SaTH, they were the largest group speaking up in the fourth quarter of the year.

“Concerns on patient safety were around lack of cover and review at the weekends, process on reporting of scans, drug packaging, safe staffing levels and poor patient care,” she adds.

Actions taken in response included reviews into drug packaging and weekend cover, a business case for additional doctors” and an “increase in cover in areas where poor patient care was reported”.

Thirty-nine reports concerned “staff safety”, Ms Milanec adds.

“Concerns raised include access to vaccinations, the health and wellbeing of staff, exposure to Covid, appropriate PPE, lack of supervision for less-experienced staff and safe staffing levels,” she writes.