ITV News Correspondent Mel Barham speaks to a nurse who says her life has been destroyed after waiting almost 6 years for a Fitness to Practice hearing.
When Ishbel Straker decided to do what she believed was whistleblow on a healthcare provider, she thought she'd be thanked and protected. Instead, she says her career and reputation have been destroyed.
The mental health nurse from Southport, who runs her own consultancy business, had been brought in to support staff at an NHS Trust following a string of suicides.
But she says she was so alarmed about how staff were being safeguarded and the practices of that healthcare provider that she raised the alarm.
"I didn't realise how hard that was going to be because whistleblowing as an external provider into an organisation is not something that people generally do, and the structures aren't set up for that.
"They're set up for that internal whistleblowing, as are the protections for that. But I naively thought justice is going to prevail. I've got everything documented."
Within a month, that healthcare provider had issued its own complaint against Ishbel to the nursing regulator, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). They insist that was not in retaliation.
Ishbel was then the subject of two further unrelated complaints from a disgruntled patient and an ex-employee, which resulted in her being suspended.
Almost six years on from that first complaint, Ishbel is still waiting for the NMC to hear her cases. The target is...
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