Whistleblowing nurse no longer trusts the NHS
A trust must pay a whistleblowing nurse £14,000 in damages and lost earnings, a judge has ordered.
Mark Temperton won his whistleblowing case at an employment tribunal in May, but the full judgement has just been published.
Mr Temperon worked as a band five agency nurse for Blackstone Recruitment. He was booked to work a night shift in the Priesters psychiatric intensive care unit at Greater Manchester Mental Health Foundation Trust’s Atherleigh Park Hospital.
During the shift, a patient was brought in by the police and “immediately” put into seclusion because of staff shortages. Mr Temperton subsequently raised this as a concern with the nurse in charge and a locum consultant psychiatrist. However, the patient was kept in seclusion.
According to the Mental Health Act’s code of practice, seclusion “should not be used as a punishment or a threat, or because of a shortage of staff”. Serious concerns were also raised about the trust’s Edenfield Centre in September 2022 by BBC Panorama, one of these was the use of inappropriate seclusion.
After blowing the whistle, Mr Temperton was told he would be offered no more shifts at the hospital.
The judgement said his “hope and expectation was that he would continue to be offered shifts from October 2022 until the end of the year, and possibly beyond. This would provide him and his family with very welcome additional income over the Christmas period.”
‘What have I done’
The tribunal heard that losing the shifts caused the claimant to ask himself “what have I done?” and to “question himself over whether he should have ever raised any concerns”.
Employment judge Holmes said: “The experience has left him nervous and too vulnerable to work as a nurse on any agency basis. He felt anxiety, a feeling of nervousness, fear for the future and dread.
“The failure of the respondent adequately to investigate his complaint, and taking two months to respond to it, has added to this. The frustration and anxiety has led to a deep mistrust in how the NHS deals with people who raise concerns.
“The claimant values the NHS and the rights of people who use it, and he knows that he cannot look away if he sees wrongdoing. He now fears that when working for the NHS again the raising of concerns would have the same consequences.”
He was awarded £7,000 for injury to feelings and a further £5,500 for loss of earnings, plus interest.
Acting chief nurse at Greater Manchester Mental Health Foundation Trust Clair Carson said: “We are sorry for Mr Temperton’s experience at GMMH. We accept the findings of the hearing, and a case review is planned. We want people to feel supported to speak up and advocate for the highest standards of care and treatment.
“Our Freedom to Speak Up Guardians report to the board as part of a fully functioning approach and our case rate is well above the national median.”