Nursing and Midwifery Council insist on their crass decision on Haywood

Following my post last night about the 'striking off' of whistleblowing nurse Margaret Haywood, I see today the Nursing and Midwifery Council have had to put out a statement explaining their decision!

In a statement published on their website this morning, the NMC note 'significant media interest' concerning their decision, by an independent panel of the Nursing & Midwifery Council’s Conduct and Competence Committee to strike off Margaret Haywood from the register.

The NMC say "the view of the independent panel was that Margaret Haywood’s actions in breaching patient confidentiality represented a major breach of ‘The Code: Standards of conduct, performance and ethics for nurses and midwives’ by which all nurses and midwives must abide".

"Based upon the evidence it heard, the independent Panel decided that Margaret Haywood’s fitness to practise was impaired by reason of misconduct.

A patient should be able to trust a nurse with his/her physical condition and psychological wellbeing without that confidential information being disclosed to others. Only in the most exceptional circumstances should the cardinal principle of patient confidentiality be breached. Based upon the evidence it heard, the panel did not believe that this was the case and although the conditions on the ward were serious, it was not necessary to breach confidentiality to seek to improve them by the method chosen. The panel believed that the method was unlikely to benefit the patients that were on the ward at the time of filming and under Margaret Haywood’s care."

What a load of tripe!

At the NMC hearing, Elizabeth Bloor, the producer of BBC's Panorama programme that blew the whistle on the Royal Sussex Hospital's lack of care of the elderly, gave evidence and told the hearing consent had been obtained from all the families of patients involved in the filming!

The BBC producer added that there had been "an over-arching public interest" to produce the Undercover Nurse documentary because Panorama had received up to 5,000 complaints about conditions.

In November the panel found no evidence that Ms Haywood broke the NHS Trust's policy on whistle-blowing by raising concerns about patient care in the documentary, or that she failed to assist colleagues when a patient was having a seizure.

A BBC spokesman said "there was clearly a strong public interest in revealing that some elderly people were not receiving the level of care we expect from our national health service".

"Panorama believes that Margaret Haywood has done the elderly population of this country a great service."

Today, listening to a BBC Radio 5 Live phone-in, it was clear that a very significant number of people across the country agree that Ms Haywood's actions have improved care for the elderly... and not just in Sussex. They also believe the NMC have got it wrong!

People are grateful for the courage and enterprise Ms Haywood showed... in standing up and fighting for these elderly patients... and blowing the whistle on the Royal Sussex Hospital.

The consequences Ms Haywood now faces... in being unemployed and disbarred from being able to continue employment as a nurse is shameful. This woman should be being congratulated for what she did!

If you would like to support Margaret Haywood, there is a Facebook Group whose aim is to Reinstate Margaret Haywood.

Update - Petitions set up

There are now a number of Petitions set up in support of Margaret Haywood and I have listed those I have chosen to support here: Petitions set up in support of Margaret Haywood

If you want to let the NMC know how you feel you can do so by emailing this article to them - Just click on the 'SHARE' button below to email them - Copy these email addresses as they are (including the comma) and paste it into the email address window of the 'SHARE' email: fitness.to.practise@nmc-uk.org, communications@nmc-uk.org - You might like to add, as I did, that you think their decision is "appalling and shameful"!