Whistle blowing - Panorama nurse
12 October 2009
David Pittaway QC and Karen Johnson, instructed by the Royal College of Nursing, have been successful in the appeal brought by the nurse Margaret Haywood to the Administrative Court against the decision of the Nursing and Midwifery Council to strike her off the register for the covert filming of patients at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton later broadcast in a BBC Panorama programme. Shortly before the date set for the hearing, 15th October 2009, the NMC agreed to the imposition of a 1 year caution backdated to the date of the decision in place of the order striking her off the register and also agreed to pay the RCN's costs of the appeal.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/panorama/2009/10/margaret_haywood_allowed_to_pr.html
The case raised difficult and sensitive issues arising out of the tension between the duty of confidentiality owed by a nurse to an individual patient, and the broader duty to promote high standards of clinical practice and nursing care for all patients being treated in hospital. The NMC recognised in the statement it made following the making of the order that one of the lessons of this case was that nurses and midwives need clearer information about how to raise and escalate concerns in a way that is safe for patients and in a way that will not bring them into conflict with their code of conduct for which purpose it was developing guidance.
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