Bid to broker peace between unions and NHS Highland
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A HEALTH department official is attempting to arrange urgent talks between the GMB union and NHS Highland chairman David Alston to discuss the firestorm over alleged bullying within the service.
After a letter was sent by the union to Scotland’s health secretary Jeanne Freeman, her health workforce, leadership and service transformation directorate acknowledged that the union was now in official dispute with NHS Highland.
Shirley Rogers, health workforce director, said she would try to arrange a meeting between the board and trade unions, over which she would preside.
"This will allow a platform for the local trade unions, as the representatives of NHS Highland employees, to share their perspectives on the issues that have been raised," she said.
But this does not go far enough for the GMB and many of the complainants who want an open, public inquiry into allegations made by scores of current and former health staff.
On a visit to Inverness last week, the union’s Scottish leader Gary Smith spoke of a "crisis of confidence" in NHS Highland’s senior management.
He added a clamour for a public inquiry into the allegations of bullying would persist.
"The political pressure will only increase, both on the Scottish Government and on the local NHS senior management," he said.
"There’s nowhere else we’re getting this noise. There have been problems in Dundee but in terms of the noise and the lack of action, it’s certainly a lot more pointed here.
"We’ll be writing to [shadow health secretary] Monica Lennon asking what Labour’s position is and seeking support, and seeking to ensure the issue is raised formally in the Scottish Parliament with the Scottish Government and with the First Minister, if necessary.
"A sensible move for the minister would be to sit down with representatives of the clinicians and the GMB to talk about what the problems are and to get underneath why there’s no confidence in the internal systems to deal with them.
"We’re not going to have ministers brush us off and we’re not going to have senior management in a local health service try to suppress it."
The union is in dispute with NHS Highland management over the bullying allegations – which could lead to it balloting members over industrial action – because it opposes the prospect of what it perceives is an "internal" inquiry into the complaints of scores of current and former NHS staff.
Its Highland NHS representative Gavin Smith said: "Members have told us there’s a structural issue with the bullying and harassment within NHS Highland.
"Our members are more worried about how their complaints will be handled rather than the next stage. That’s our job, to work out how we’re going to progress this."
Regional GMB official Liz Gordon said she was contacting all local MPs and MSPs and inviting them to a meeting next week at which a number of case studies of alleged bullying would be aired publicly.
"If we fail to get an independent inquiry, it would be like giving the NHS permission to bully at will and nobody can hold them to account," she said.
Ms Rogers’ letter reaffirmed that the Scottish Government took the allegations "extremely seriously" in a workplace with "a zero tolerance approach to this form of behaviour".
Despite the union’s insistence on an external and independent inquiry, it added: "Given the board has indicated they are not aware of the specific allegations that you have raised, I would continue to encourage you to meet with Mr Alston so that the allegations can be raised and responded to."
