18th June 2014

Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP
Secretary of State for Health
Richmond House
Whitehall
London

Dear Secretary of State

Thank you for meeting with us today to hear from whistleblowers across the NHS.

We were heartened to hear your praise for our courage, and how you saw us as being at the ‘vanguard’ in showing how the NHS culture is still intolerant of whistleblowing.

We are looking to help you achieve the cultural change that is overdue, in order that NHS staff feel safe to report their concerns about harm to patients.

At present, we have the opposite of a witness protection program, where staying silent is rewarded by payoffs and relocation, whereas speaking up gets you ‘buried in the woods’. Until this changes, and NHS staff can see for themselves clear examples of restorative justice, NHS workers can never feel safe to raise the most serious concerns about patient care.

Our position is that a public inquiry is now required to reveal the whistleblower’s journey in full and show how the ‘middle’ – that complex interaction of Boards, Unions, Colleges and Legal gaming of PIDA (PIDA avoidance) – puts patients and staff in

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Urgent Investment Needed in Young People’s Mental Health Services

The British Medical Journal’s erroneous over-egging the risks of side effects of statins lead to former heart surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub pronouncing that everyone over 40 should be on a statin to lower their cholesterol. Whilst statins can be life saving for those at high risk of heart disease and stroke, there is no evidence that the mass medicalisation of those at low risk and with no symptoms, would do any good. Making everyone pill-dependant, anxious and ‘at risk’ at the age of 40 is hardly a recipe for happiness, and the money would be much better spent on mental health services which are failing badly in the NHS.

A report by NHS England leaked to the Observer has found that only a quarter of children with mental health conditions receive the treatment they need, but this is hardly news. Multiple previous reviews have found the same problems, but the current budget cuts and increasing demand is tipping the service into crisis. Only 6% of spending on mental health goes on services aimed at children and young people, yet 50% of lifetime mental illness starts by the age of 14.

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No Jerks, we’re British

Most of the debate about the proposed merger between Pfizer and Astra Zeneca focused on whether Pfizer would asset strip and make thousands of UK employees redundant. But what’s it like working for Pfizer? An employee has sent MD details of an ‘excruciating’ No Jerks staff development program where everyone was given a ‘No Jerks’ self refection survey, ‘Straight Talk Tools’ and the ‘Let’s Discuss Behaviours’ coin.

Pfizer is a global company and presumably aware that jerking has a number of off-message meanings. ‘Often jerk like behaviour is subtle and nuanced but equally as destructive as the more overt bullying and belittling behaviours we often think of.’ Pfizer asks its employees to identify such behaviours in themselves. ‘Is your focus always on your own goals, rather than Pfizer’s? Do you think nothing of belittling others for affect or sport? Do you indulge in whisper campaigns, trade on position power and threats, over-react emotionally and take credit for the work of others while being negative and subversive in the face of change?’ If you were foolish enough to answer ‘yes’ to any of these, you may no longer be working for Pfizer.

The No

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Mr Hunt won’t get involved in Mr Ahmed’s case, or indeed the case of any individual whistleblower whose career and livelihood has been destroyed for following their moral and professional duty to speak up and protect patients from avoidable harm. However, the Department of Health is considering how to ensure that whistleblowers are not just protected but praised, thanked, rewarded and kept in NHS employment wherever they speak up. We shall see. Mr Hunt’s response is below

Reply from Jeremy Hunt to Patients First

There’s a better way to good health than popping a statin

Should you take medical advice from a surgeon? Much as I admire Sir Magdi Yacoub for his services to heart surgery, I strongly disagree with his paternalistic prescription that everyone over 40 should take a statin to lower their cholesterol. To be fair, Yacoub was trying to rebalance the debate after the British Medical Journal seriously over-egged the side effects of statins, and if those who need to take them stop doing so as a result of this scare it could worsen their heart disease. But we shouldn’t all start blindly popping the pills when we hit 40. A far better approach is to encourage each of us to take responsibility both for our health, and our healthcare. 80% of what can be done to reduce the risk of heart disease, liver disease, kidney disease, strokes and diabetes is down to our behaviour. Health care adds a comparatively modest 20%. Walking wherever and whenever we can, and a modest reduction in portion size are each far more powerful and effective at preventing disease for most of us than statins or blood pressure pills.

If you have established disease or

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