Response to Derby Telegraph
We are again disappointed in the reporting of the Derby Telegraph. The newspaper has taken Facebook comments from a number of former NHS staff, many who left the NHS over five years ago, some more than seven years ago, about their experience of bullying. However, the Derby Telegraph are choosing to make these look like recent occurrences this year.
We’re really clear that bullying has no place in the NHS. That’s why we raised this issue first ourselves in our Public Trust Board this November. We’re determined to surface this subject and have a sensible debate publicly.
We knew that in doing so we run the risk of being misrepresented, as the Derby Telegraph are doing, but we felt it was a risk worth taking for our staff. We are the largest employer in the region and we are taking action to talk about this openly because we believe it is our role to do so. We are disappointed the Derby Telegraph can’t see beyond the salacious and understand that we are trying to do something that is difficult.
We’re very clear that bullying, harassment and abuse have no place in our hospitals and for the last three or four years we have been on a journey to be open about it. It is a sad fact that most large organisations experience this challenge, it’s not confined to the NHS. However, at UHDB we are committed to tackling the issue head on.
This means creating a culture where people can come forward to openly talk about bullying and harassment. We do this not only because bullying has a significant impact on the wellbeing of others, it also has an impact on patient care when people don’t feel they can speak up when things do go wrong.
We’ve had some success in this and have seen the number of people feeling able to talk about bullying increase in this time. Many have chosen not to do this anonymously, which is encouraging.
Because of this work we’ve been nominated twice in two years as the Freedom to Speak Up Organisation of the Year in awards for NHS organisations.
We do need to listen to the views of all of our staff currently working in our hospitals. Bullying is not widespread in our hospitals. Last year our staff rated us better than the national average amongst trusts for bullying and harassment and also rated us highly as a place our staff would recommend others to work and receive treatment.
All of our colleagues are working so hard at the moment under extremely difficult circumstances. We want to thank them for their hard work and encourage colleagues to continue to speak up no matter the difficulties we face or the way it might be reported in the Derby Telegraph.
If you are a current member of staff at UHDB and want to discuss bullying and harassment please contact the Freedom to Speak Up Guardian. Contact details are available at the top of Net-i