A senior consultant who turned whistleblower to expose the cervical screening scandal in the Southern Health and Social Care Trust has told UTV he felt questioned when he raised his concerns.
Michael McKenna decided to speak to UTV about his experience as a whistleblower after the health minister encouraged medics to speak out in the wake of a damning report into poor behaviour and culture within the Belfast Trust's Cardiac Surgery Unit.
UTV first revealed that the poor behaviour by some heart surgeons at the cardiac surgery unit led to a “significant risk to patient safety".
Staff at the Belfast Trust have said issues raised are not isolated, but a symptom of organisational failure and called on senior management to work to rebuild confidence.
In the first of a two part interview with Dr McKenna, the consultant pathologist, who has more than 15 years experience, said more needs to be done to protect whistleblowers in the health service.
Dr McKenna said he flagged critical issues in the cervical screening programme within the Southern Health Trust back in October 2021.
He told UTV trust management was supportive at the time, but once his concerns were raised at a meeting with the Public Health Agency in August 2022, he felt a shift in tone.
"It is certainly the worst meeting that I have ever been in, in my life," he told UTV.
Dr McKenna said senior management accepted his concerns and knew changes had to be made, however he felt "pretty devastated" when the meeting was...
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