Whistle while you work in the health-related professions?

The spate of correspondence and publicity, following the disciplining, and subsequent settlement in his favour, at an Industrial Tribunal, of Stockport Health Authority Charge Nurse Graham Pink, suggested that the urge to blow the whistle was at almost epidemic proportions in the NHS. It might have been surmised that the only device which kept this under control was the fear of discipline and perhaps dismissal. This fear has been increased by the contracts of employment of the NHS Trusts which have outlawed acts of whistleblowing. There are similar pressures for those working in other health-related professions, and in health and safety, and environmental protection. It is important to question whether such severe strictures are in the public interest, or whether they are there to make the life of senior managers easier, or to make it possible to ensure that doctors, nurses, and other caring professionals and support staff, conform to budgetary constraints without resort to campaigning.