A nurse with an "unblemished" 40-year career in the NHS was sacked after raising concerns about a patient's death.
Linda Fairhill, 62, told a colleague at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust that she wanted to instigate a formal whistle-blowing process, as she believed that increased workload had contributed to the patient's death.
But when Linda, a mum-of-two, returned to work following a period of annual leave she was told that she was being suspended, due to allegations of potential gross misconduct relating to her leadership. She was later sacked from her position.
Linda, a clinical care coordinator who oversaw a team of around 50 district nurses, raised concerns in 2015 about a new requirement for district nurses to monitor patients’ prescriptions. She said that it meant a sudden increase of around 1,000 extra visits a month for the service, with no extra resources, TeessideLive reports.
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Over the next 10 months, Linda - who had previously been commended by the Care Quality Commission for her quality of care and leadership skills - reported 13 matters alleging that the health or safety of patients and staff was being, or was likely to be, put at risk. Linda was also concerned about staff workload and employee stress and sickness, as well as risk to patients.
When a patient sadly died on October 4, 2016, Linda had a meeting with a colleague where she said that she felt the death could have...
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