NHS managers who are found responsible for professional misconduct will be barred from taking up other senior roles in the Health Service, under plans to be unveiled by ministers.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has been moved to act by a string of NHS scandals, including the cover-up over infected blood and the deaths of babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital, which employed nurse Lucy Letby.
Under the plans, board-level directors who have committed serious misconduct will no longer be able to work in senior NHS management positions.
To limit the scope for cover-ups, whistleblowers will also be encouraged to come forward.
Any leader who silences whistleblowers or behaves unacceptably will be banned from returning to a Health Service position.
There is currently no regulatory framework for managers equivalent to that for doctors and nurses.
More than 30,000 people in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C after they were given contaminated blood and blood products between the 1970s and early 1990s.
More than 3,000 people have died as a result – but a damning report published last year concluded that doctors, the Government and NHS tried to cover up what happened by ‘hiding the truth’.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has been moved to act by a string of NHS scandals, including the cover-up over infected blood and the deaths of babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital, which employed nurse Lucy LetbyÂ
Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven more
Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven more, but a growing number of public figures, led by former health secretary Jeremy Hunt and ex-Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption, have expressed concern about the absence of direct evidence or plausible motive linking her to the deaths – at a hospital known to have struggled to keep very premature babies alive.
Three former senior managers at the hospital were arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter earlier this year.
Mr Streeting said: ‘I’m determined to create a culture of honesty and openness where whistleblowers are protected, and that demands tough enforcement.
‘If you silence whistleblowers, you will never work in the NHS again. We’ve got to create the conditions where staff are free to come forward and sound the alarm when things go wrong.
‘Protecting the reputation of the NHS should never be put before protecting patient safety.
‘Most NHS leaders are doing a fantastic job, but we need to stop the revolving door that allows managers sacked for misconduct or incompetence to be quietly moved to another well-paid role in another part of the NHS.’
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