The Birmingham MP Preet Gill has called on the UK health secretary to launch a major public inquiry into allegations that a bullying and a toxic culture is risking patient safety at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB).
The MP for Edgbaston, where UHB is based, said she had received complaints from staff alleging elderly patients had been left on beds in corridors outside wards due to mismanagement, and medics were discouraged from speaking out about problems.
In a letter to Steve Barclay, seen by the Guardian, Gill said: “I have been inundated by messages from UHB staff, past and present, who have contacted me to share their experience of what has been repeatedly described as a toxic culture that has had an alarming impact on staff and patient care.”
After an investigation by BBC Newsnight earlier this month, which found that doctors at the trust were “punished” for raising safety concerns, the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (ICB) announced a three-part review into the culture at UHB. The first report is expected at the end of January.
But Gill criticised the plans, saying she did not think it would “be sufficient to adequately investigate this scandal”, and instead called for a major independent public inquiry, similar to the 2013 Francis inquiry into the Stafford hospital scandal.
“We cannot rely on an ICB investigation to solve this issue. Many of those on the ICB are former members of the senior leadership team from UHB and would not offer the independence required to recommend the changes that are so needed or give confidence to whistleblowers,” she said.
Gill revealed details of more than 30 messages she has received from current and former UHB staff in recent weeks. “The story I am hearing time and again is that staff who raised concerns about something that they thought was putting patients at risk were often ignored and then penalised for doing so,” she said.
One staff member said: “Patients are not receiving adequate care. The staff are broken. The micromanagement, verbal aggression from all.”
Another said: “The upper management make unsafe plans and ideas a reality and implement them regardless of what the clinical staff think to this. We have had elderly patients crying and begging to go back to A&E because they have been left on a corridor for hours outside a ward.”
Gill said the death of Dr Vaishnavi Kumar, who worked at Queen Elizabeth hospital, “must be a turning point for the trust”. An inquest last month found Kumar took her own life after feeling “belittled” at work, with her father saying she described it as a “hypercritical place”.
UHB manages several hospitals, serving 2.2 million people, and employs 22,500 people, making it one of the biggest NHS trusts in the UK.
A spokesperson for NHS Birmingham and Solihull said: “The first of three reviews into concerns about the culture at University Hospitals Birmingham will be led by an experienced independent clinician from outside the area.
“We are grateful to Preet Gill for contributing to the terms of reference of the review, and for her valuable support along with the other local people and organisations who will work as part of a dedicated reference group that will steer the review and ensure its independence and transparency.”
University Hospitals Birmingham said: “We welcome the support that is being put in place and we look forward to working positively and constructively with our NHS colleagues.
“This will build upon the work already under way across UHB to understand the issues that have been highlighted. It is very clear that there is a strength of feeling in a number of areas and we are committed to addressing these.
“Our focus now is to continue to provide high standards of care, while supporting all colleagues, as we head into a particularly challenging winter period.”
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