Good morning. It is no secret that NHS England has many problems: it is crumbling (literally), patient care backlogs are at record highs, there is a recruitment and retention crisis, and quality of care is declining with the results for patients sometimes life-threatening.
Over the last two decades a parallel problem has emerged. The NHS ombudsman Rob Behrens described to Guardian health editor Denis Campbell that the health service has a “cover-up culture”. Behren has identified an alarming practice where some trusts “cynically [bury] evidence about poor care” to maintain their reputation. It is not the first time that cultural problems have been identified – over the years a number of reports and inquiries have highlighted practices of silencing and punishing whistleblowers.
