NHS staff afraid to speak up for safety of patients

TEMPORARY NHS workers fear speaking up about patient safety due to discrimination and even racism, an investigation has found.

- Storm Newton

Agency staff told the Health Services Safety Investigations Body that workplace culture and attitudes in some NHS organisations made them feel "isolated" and "unable to integrate" with their teams.

Bank staff, agency workers and locum doctors are discriminated against due to their working status or their ethnicity, they found.

This can impact their ability to seek support and ask questions, or leave them fearful of speaking up in case they lose future work opportunities.

Discrimination

Calling the findings "troubling", Matt Mansbridge, of the HSSIB, said: "Trusts and national organisations expressed that they are aware that many temporary staff experience discrimination and that this prevents them from talking freely.