This piece resonated horribly with me (NHS ombudsman warns hospitals are cynically burying evidence of poor care, 17 March). The trust in which I was a manager purports to deal with “untoward incidents” openly. My experience was the reverse. An investigation I conducted into a suicide in the community revealed very poor practice, with two staff falsifying records to cover up their failure to visit a suicidal service user.
I recommended disciplinary investigations, but my report was not welcomed by senior managers, who – running scared of a famously rigorous coroner – considered it “too blame-y”. I was pressured to change my report. I declined to do so, supported by my own manager. But it was drastically watered down by senior managers. There was no comeback for the staff in question, and one was promoted soon after.
It is saddening to learn that this approach appears to be endemic. With such a culture, not only are service users and those close to them denied honest accounts of service failures, but there can be no opportunities for change, despite the mouthing of platitudes about transparency and accountability and “learning from mistakes”.
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