5 December 2020
NHS ‘cover-up culture’: Elizabeth Dixon deserved better Everywhere we look there seems to be evidence of dishonesty. We have the recent reports about the secretive and dishonest responses of the Catholic and Anglian churches as described in my last blog. Hiding the ‘dirty linen’ of child abuse. This week at the Grenfell Inquiry we heard about the dishonesty in the organisations supplying insulation. Now we have the report by Dr Bill Kirkup 'The Life and Death of Elizabeth Dixon: A Catalyst for Change'. This clearly identifies the existence of yet another NHS cover-up ‘…propped up by denial and deception’. 'Elizabeth’s profound disability and death could have been avoided had basic clinical principles been followed. There were failures of care by every organisation that looked after her, none of which was admitted at the time, nor properly investigated then or later. Instead, a cover up began on the day that she died, propped up by denial and deception, which has proved extremely hard to dislodge over the years. The fabrication became so embedded that it has taken a sustained effort, correlating documents from many sources and interviewing key participants, to demolish it…some individuals have been persistently dishonest, both by omission and by commission, and that this extended to formal statements to police and regulatory bodies. Had police examined the events after Elizabeth’s death this must have become evident, but they closed their investigation without doing so. This represents a clear failing in the police investigation which should now be the subject of a statutory referral to the Independent Office of Police Conduct.’ (p.vii). The parents Anne and Graeme Dixon have had to fight for the truth about Elizabeth’s death for 20 years. No parent or person should have to fight like that to get to the truth. It is shocking and shameful. In the NHS there are many cover-ups. Dishonesty seems to be engrained and instinctive; the automatic response. This toxic culture is clearly detailed in John England’s book ‘NHS Dirty Secrets’. He describes the cover-up culture as pervasive, virulent and institutionalised. ‘NHS managers want to see no evil and hear no evil as per the institutionalised concealment and cover-up culture of the NHS’ (pp.100-101). A ‘Triad of Factors’ constitute and maintain this culture; propaganda, maskirovka (masking), and bullying. There is ‘frothy propaganda’. He writes ‘The cover-up culture is the endemic response to hiding the truth about any issue that would reflect badly on the various NHS managers and officials in the NHS hierarchy, all the way up to the higher echelons of government. Hiding the truth about an issue can take the form of concealment, diversion, disguise, deflection, denial, and broadcasting false information’ (p.337). Anyone who wants to understand the dysfunctional behaviours they see and experience in the NHS, should read this book. John is very clear that we cannot have a patient safety culture in the presence of the engrained, dishonest cover-up culture. For the sake of the Elizabeth Dixons of this world change has got to come. We need a ‘safety culture’ where learning is valued. Elizabeth and her family deserved better.
0 Comments
|