Understanding employee whistleblowing in health care

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Understanding employee whistleblowing in health care

• IRAS ID

  189539

• Contact name

  Russell Mannion

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Birmingham

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 4 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  Recent Inquiries and reports into poor standards of NHS care have highlighted the vital role that employee whistleblowing can play in the detection and prevention of harm to patients. Since the 1998 Public Interest Disclosure Act all NHS trusts have been required to establish formal policies and procedures for promoting and enabling whistleblowing and these legal duties are now enshrined in the NHS Constitution.

  In spite of this, recent hospital scandals, most notably at Mid Staffordshire, and numerous surveys of NHS staff have shown that many healthcare professionals working in the NHS feel inhibited in raising concerns about poor quality care, with many believing that even if they did raise concerns their organisation would fail to act or would respond inappropriately.

  It is clear that in the post-Francis era of ‘openness, transparency and candour’ whistleblowing policies remain central but are inadequate, with many staff reluctant to raise concerns for fear of bullying, intimidation or reprisals by managers and colleagues.

  The purpose of the proposed study is to review the theory and empirical evidence on whistleblowing with the aim of identifying theoretically grounded and evidence-informed lessons for the design and implementation of employee whistleblowing policies in the NHS.

  To do so it draws on a range of qualitative interviews with key policy stakeholders (outside of practitioner and patient perspectives) ascertain the views, expectations and experiences about effective whistleblowing policies in the NHS. These interviews will also look to explore perceptions of how the latest Francis whistleblowing report and current reforms and organisational incentives are impacting on the motivations of employees to raise concerns and the willingness of NHS organisations to respond when they do so.

• REC name

  N/A

• REC reference

  N/A