NHS England is being urged to introduce an independent second opinion whenever it decides to dismiss a healthcare professional, in memory of a nurse who set himself on fire after being unfairly dismissed from his job.
Dr Narinder Kapur, an NHS whistleblower, is proposing “Amin’s rule”, named after Amin Abdullah, who killed himself in 2016, to plug a gap he says exists when it comes to staff wellbeing.
Kapur, 76, a consultant neuropsychologist and visiting professor at University College London, was sacked by Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge in 2010 after raising concerns about staff shortages and unqualified staff working without proper supervision.
An employment tribunal ruled that Kapur had been unfairly dismissed after he spent £300,000 bringing the case, using funds from the sale of his house and his NHS pension.
He has recently held talks with senior NHS officials, including the NHS England (NHSE) chief executive, Jim Mackey, to try to prevent anyone else going through the same experience.
Kapur said: “If they had a second external opinion when Abdullah had his kangaroo court or when I had my kangaroo court, that external person would almost certainly not have approved his unfair dismissal or my unfair dismissal.
“If staff wellbeing is affected then patient care is going to be affected. If you’re a whistleblower you’re going to get in trouble in the NHS, if you’ve got coloured skin you’re probably going to get in trouble.”
People of colour who work in the NHS are more likely to face disciplinary action than white staff, and minority ethnic doctors are more likely to fear adverse consequences if they raise patient safety concerns.
Abdullah was suspended from Charing Cross hospital after signing a petition in support of a colleague after a patient complaint, and then writing a letter for the colleague in which he described the patient as a “professional complainer against NHS staff”.
An independent inquiry, which Kapur helped bring about, found in 2018 that Abdullah “should have known that signing the petition was not appropriate” but it noted none of the other 18 signatories had been disciplined and concluded the 41-year-old had been “treated unfairly” by Imperial College healthcare NHS trust.
Kapur, who is a member of Justice for Doctors, is also calling for other staff protections, including extending the maintaining high professional standards framework, intended to ensure fairness in addressing concerns about doctors and dentists, to all healthcare professionals.
Additionally, he wants the healthcare regulator, the Care Quality Commission, to be split into two, with one body dealing with patients and the other with staff. Kapur said: “You need to have external scrutiny of trusts and also private healthcare bodies as to how they treat staff, especially whistleblowers and BME [black and minority ethnic] staff.”
He is also calling for reduced use by the NHS of the “some other substantial reason” legal mechanism, which enables organisations to fire employees for reasons other than conduct or capability. Between April 2010 and September 2018, the NHS sacked 10,604 members of staff under the SOSR mechanism, commonly justified by a breakdown in relationships.
Kapur said: “If I can do things to make sure that what happened to me and Abdullah won’t happen to people in the future, I will do until there are meaningful improvements.”
A NHSE spokesperson said it was working with the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure protection for whistleblowers. They added: “It is completely unacceptable for any member of staff to feel silenced or unable to speak up about issues affecting them or their patients. We’d urge anyone who has concerns to contact the Freedom to Speak Up guardian in their organisation, to help ensure the NHS learns from mistakes so we can provide the best possible care for patients.”
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
