• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • News
  • Education
  • Events
  • Interviews
    • Career spotlight
  • Opinion
    • Professional Dilemmas
    • Patient perspective
  • PIPcast
  • Jobs
  • Business Directory

Pharmacy in Practice

EDX/20/1154
Date of prep: December 2020

Prescribing information and
adverse events reporting

For healthcare professionals only

New bullying review needed after ‘damning’ reports

1st December 2020 by PIP editor Leave a Comment

 

One of the whistle-blowers who began the process exposing a bullying crisis at NHS Highland has said the organisation still has more to do in Argyll & Bute.

 

In 2018 GP Dr Iain Kennedy and three other doctors wrote on open letter highlighting a “culture of fear and intimidation” at the health board.

 

This sparked an independent review by John Sturrock QC that found hundreds of staff could have been victims of bullying.

 

Speaking to healthandcare.scot, Dr Iain Kennedy, welcomed the leadership changes that had taken place since Sturrock reported and described the ‘healing process’ set up to help staff as a “major success”.

 

Read the full interview here.

 

But he said that more needed to be done to address the concerns of staff in Argyll & Bute.

 

“One of our current concerns is that there are a number of individuals coming forward in the Argyll and Bute part of NHS Highland, reporting current and longstanding bullying and there have been calls to have an independent review performed there – Sturrock did recommend that.”

 

“The concerns in Argyll and Bute are not going away unfortunately, and the results of the survey were damning.

 

“Myself and my whistle-blowing colleagues do believe an independent review is required into Argyll and Bute, and I’m not sure who should undertake it, but it should be an individual or organisation who is independent of NHS Highland.”

 

Review author John Sturrock QC called for a second investigation focusing on Argyll & Bute because of its isolation from the rest of the north Highland area.

 

He said some of the allegations ‘implicate management at a very senior level’.

 

A row emerged after health board management there insisted they had met this call with a workplace survey from an independent research agency.

 

It found bullying was rife, with nearly seven in ten current and former NHS staff having experienced bullying and harassment.

 

However local politicians and staff representatives said it “stretches credulity” to say the survey met the criteria set down by Mr Sturrock because it was commissioned by NHS Highland management.

 

by Henry Anderson & Sarah Nimmo

 

This story has been supplied through our partnership with our friends at healthandcare.scot. Click here to head over and have a look if you haven’t already.

 

Related

Next article  PDA donations to Pharmacist Support surpass £110,000

Filed Under: News Tagged With: bullying

Register for our upcoming webinar and live Q&A

About PIP editor

Pharmacy in Practice is a UK pharmacy publication with its roots in Scotland.

Reader Interactions

Begin the discussion right here Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Categories

PIP business directory

Letters to the editor

Letters to the editor

We don’t ask patients about their medicines as often as we should

People can easily go to multiple pharmacies to buy codeine

How 56 community pharmacies helped to eradicate hepatitis C

Admiration for community pharmacy in Scotland

More letters to the editor here...

Blogs

💊 PIP live pharmacy blog

Winter stresses must not ‘destabilise’ general practice

What is it like to depend on medicine to treat endometriosis?

Opinion

Why is pharmacy not integral to government mass vaccination plans?

Pharmacy Covid-19 vaccination involvement is a ‘no-brainer’

The great patient medication returns debacle

CPD Challenges

💊 CPD Challenge: How well do you understand pulmonary embolisms?

💊 CPD Challenge: Prescribing and dispensing clozapine

💊 CPD Challenge: Oral anticoagulants – Dabigatran

More CPD challenges here...

© 2021 · About Pharmacy In Practice · Site mantained by Mike

This site is for healthcare professionals, please confirm you are a healthcare professional to continue.

YES

Pharmacy In Practice uses cookies, by continuing to use this site we will assume you are ok with that Find out more.