QUESTIONS must be asked as to why Scotland’s NHS has become “fertile ground” for inappropriate staff behaviour such as bullying, the leader of a doctors’ union is expected to say.
Dr Lewis Morrison, chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) in Scotland, will today discuss the Sturrock Report, which looked at allegations of bullying at NHS Highland, in a speech to the organisations’s annual representative meeting in Belfast. The report found that potentially hundreds of staff had endured inappropriate behaviour while working at the health board.
READ MORE: NHS Highland health board sorry over staff bullying
Morrison will say: “I think it is clear that bullying and harassment is the issue that has dominated the NHS in Scotland this year. The issues aren’t new but are only now coming fully to light.
“We welcomed the NHS Highland review, led by John Sturrock QC, whose report makes for stark reading. We applauded the apologies that followed from our Health Secretary Jeane Freeman and from the leadership of NHS Highland, and the setting up of a short-life working group over this summer to address the problem across the NHS in Scotland. That group must ask why the NHS in Scotland has become such fertile ground for wholly inappropriate behaviours and then it must address the reasons head-on.”
Morrison is also expected to say there must be a move away from a blame culture and instead ensure a system is in place where staff are listened to. “It’s time to move beyond fact finding and apologies,” he will say. “The opportunity for change and rebuilding trust must not be squandered. Doctors and healthcare workers must be able to go to work unafraid, knowing concerns will be listened to and dealt with.
“We need to measure what our NHS does but a blame-driven culture, where we measure arbitrary things like waiting lists, which are simply unachievable, must end – and it must end quickly.”
He will add: “At the heart of all these issues is whether doctors are valued and feel valued. Our members too often tell us they aren’t. So, the message is plain – value us, through actions, not just words.”
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