Nurse Haywood

[Ex-Bay]

I watched the recent Panorama programme that revisited the case of 'Whistleblower' Nurse Margaret Haywood who has been struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council for undercover filming of the terrible standards of care for elderly patients at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton. I was shocked that she could be treated so unfairly - it's a wrong that must be put right. I was certain many others would feel the same as me, so I searched the internet and found the Number 10 petition seeking Gordon Brown's intervention. The petition is at the following URL:


http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/haywood/



I would encourage you to do as I did and sign the petition.

 

[FOMz]

Are you having a laugh? What she should have been doing is caring for the patients and sorting out their problems, not filming them like some zoo animal.

Whistle blower or deriliction of duty?... the latter I think. There are times and places for this sort of thing - that was not one of them. The Nursing and Midwifery Council have done the right thing.

 

[Ex-Bay]

I don't think she deserved striking off at all.
I'd hate to think that my last months on this planet are marred by ill treatment she discovered.
Slap on the wrist, maybe.

 

[AllWoman]

I agree with FOMz on this one! How can she have been doing her job properly if she was busying herself filming.........surely that makes her one of those who was also neglecting her duties and contributing to the bad standards of care!

 

[Ex-Bay]

Oh come one, please. It's not as if she was wandering round with a movie camera, is it.

 

[FOMz]

Errrrr yes it was - otherwise, how did she get the film? While she was filming, she was not giving the patients the care they needed and she was not doing the job she is paid for. To my mind - thats deriliction of duty.

 

[AllWoman]

No its not she did it without prior consent which is even worse! She was struck off for breaching confidentiality which as far as I can see she admitted! What is there to argue about?

When people go into hospital they need to know they can trust the people they are being treated by, not wonder if they are going to be secretly filming them.......with her that fundamental trust had gone. I can see no other course of action except for her to be struck off!

 

[Chilliboy]

Suppose that she had been bringing the poor treatment and conditions to the attention of the managers for some time with no response and no improvement. Out of sheer frustration at being fobbed off and/or ignored and in a bid to make a difference she filmed the wards to shame the officials into doing something and inform the patient's relatives what their loved ones were going through. That's not the same as filming hoping to get some money out of a tabloid for the expose.

As for permission to film, all the relatives/patients gave their permission for the film to be broadcast. It may have been after the film had been taken but they were all happy to allow the conditions to be seen by all.

Or maybe it would be better that their 'Civil Liberties' hadn't been breached (even though they didn't object) and they still got to lie in their own filth with no pain relief.

 

[Ex-Bay]

And it wasn't a hand-held Camera, so no "groan please".