Hospital whistleblowers 'still penalised', staff claim

Two porters who won an employment tribunal against the Countess of Chester Hospital Trust said their victory shows whistleblowers are "still penalised".

Last month, the trust said its culture had "improved" after the Thirlwall Inquiry found former bosses had "intended to punish" doctors who raised concerns about nurse Lucy Letby.

A tribunal this year found porters John Crayton and Thomas Jones had been "inappropriately interrogated" after raising concerns about the way deceased patients were transported. The pair said the ruling showed they had been "unlawfully victimised".

The trust said it accepted the tribunal's findings but "encourages all colleagues to speak up".

Warning: This article contains distressing details

The porters raised concerns in 2024 that they were having to transport "exposed" bodies that were not in body bags, which they said posed an infection risk.

They said there was no protection for their forearms because of the trust's policy that staff had to be bare below the elbows.

Crayton claimed there was a risk of "psychological damage" from transporting bodies showing "signs of a traumatic death".

The tribunal found the porters had been required to unwrap bodies, which was "contrary to the (hospital trust's) own policy", and had been "overexposed" to the bodies of people whose deaths had occurred outside the hospital in "traumatic circumstances".

However, it was not asked to determine whether the hospital's practices breached health and safety rules or NHS guidance.

The tribunal in Manchester found the pair had been "inappropriately interrogated" by their line manager after a senior mortuary worker identified them as the possible authors of a whistleblowing complaint submitted anonymously through the trust's Freedom to Speak Up policy.

It heard their line manager questioned them and other porters in an attempt to "get to the bottom of who had broken the chain of command".

Crayton also had his mortuary access revoked for four hours after a senior mortuary worker admitted "acting in haste and being hot-headed".

Crayton said colleagues assumed the suspension was because he had been "acting inappropriately in the mortuary".

The trust said senior managers intervened the same day, restored his access and reviewed the concerns raised.

Separately, a recent Human Tissue Authority (HTA) review heavily criticised the hospital's mortuary over its handling of some foetal remains.

The review found there was a risk bereaved families could be invited to view the wrong bodies, although the trust said there had been no instances of this happening. It concluded the facility met the majority of the HTA's standards.

The porters said the findings came as "no surprise to those of us working on the frontline".

They called for an "immediate, wholly independent, and anonymised staff survey conducted by an external body".

"The public and patients deserve real transparency, not executive damage control," they added.

Crayton and Jones said "frontline concerns are still ignored and whistleblowers are still penalised".

The Thirlwall Inquiry criticised the hospital's former management for intending to "manage-out" consultants who raised concerns about Lucy Letby, as well as planning to refer them to the General Medical Council for disciplinary proceedings.

In response, Countess chief executive Jane Tomkinson said the trust was now "a different organisation" with new leadership, stronger governance and "a more open culture" where speaking up was encouraged and acted upon.

She said there was "more to be done", but that changes had created "a safer environment for our patients and staff".

Crayton and Jones said Tomkinson was right to describe the hospital as "a different organisation", but argued it was for "entirely the wrong reasons".

They added: "On the shop floor, it is a different place because the culture of fear, managerial defensiveness, and suppression of safety concerns has simply become more entrenched behind polished PR."

A Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said the tribunal did not make findings about "retaliation by senior leadership" or "worsening whistleblower arrangements", claims the trust does not accept.

The trust said: "We encourage all colleagues to speak up and are committed to ensuring concerns are heard and acted upon."

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