A climate of fear among staff at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Trust is ' putting patients at risk', whistleblowers have claimed. Current and ex- clinicians were allegedly 'punished' by management if they brought up safety concerns.
They said a dangerous shortage of nurses and a lack of communication led to some haematology patients dying without receiving treatment, a shocking investigation by Newsnight and BBC West Midlands found. One source said the Trust was "a bit like the mafia."
A dozen "never events" - where serious safety incidents should never happen if proper safety procedures are correctly followed - were recorded between April 2020 and March 2021. Over that period it was the highest figure in the country.
The number fell to four incidents over the following 12-month period. UHB said took patient safety "very seriously" and said it has a high reporting culture of incidents.
The Trust runs four hospitals - Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Heartlands Hospital, Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield, and Hospital. It was rated rated as "requiring improvement" by healthcare regulator the Care Quality Commission.
A clinician claimed that when consultants raised safety concerns they would be "punished quite quickly and quite harshly." The doc, who asked not to be named, said: "They will make all kinds of spurious investigations and they will try to intimidate you that way."
UGB is one of the biggest Trusts in the UK. It serves more than two million...
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