By David Grossman and William McLennan
BBC Newsnight
Whistleblowers at one of England's worst performing hospital trusts have said a climate of fear among staff is putting patients at risk.
Former and current clinicians at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Trust allege they were punished by management for raising safety concerns, a BBC Newsnight investigation found.
One insider said the trust was "a bit like the mafia".
The trust said it took "patient safety very seriously".
It said it had a "high reporting culture of incidents" to ensure accountability and learning.
Concerns raised by staff included a dangerous shortage of nurses and a lack of communication leading to some haematology patients dying without receiving treatment.
The trust - which is rated "requires improvement" by healthcare regulator the Care Quality Commission - is one of the largest in the UK, with four hospitals serving more than two million patients a year.
The deaths of 20 patients in the haematology department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which is run by the trust, led to a review in 2017 by consultant Emmanouil Nikolousis.
Mr Nikolousis, who left the trust in 2020, told the BBC he was shocked by the failings he found and believes patients' lives could have been saved.
A report by Mr Nikolousis criticised a lack of "ownership" of patients and a lack of communication among senior clinicians. In some cases this led to patients dying without having received treatment, he said.
"Certainly...
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