The NHS is accused of routinely gagging employees in order to cover up dangerous and dishonest practices. Photo / Getty Images

The NHS is accused of routinely gagging employees in order to cover up dangerous and dishonest practices. Photo / Getty Images

Some local NHS bodies are spending millions of taxpayers' money to pay off and silence whistleblowers with 'super gags' to stop them going public with patient safety incidents, reports The Independent.

Experts warn that patients' lives are being endangered by the use of intimidatory tactics to force out whistleblowers and deter other professionals from coming forward.

The Independent on Sunday has learnt of children in Stoke-on-Trent needlessly losing organs after safety issues highlighted by a senior surgeon who was suspended after coming forward to voice concerns the issue was being ignored.

In one of more than 20 serious incidents, a newborn baby girl needed an ovary removed after a standard procedure to remove a cyst was delayed because of staff shortages.

According to Public Concern at Work (PCaW), two-thirds of doctors, nurses and other care-workers are accepting non-disclosure clauses built into severance agreements, in order to avoid years of suspension, financial ruin, incrimination and distress before a case reaches court.

The details of these claims, including allegations of dangerous practice, dishonesty and misconduct, are never disclosed to the public.

However, judges are also failing the public by agreeing to NHS gagging orders when presiding over whistleblower cases in court.

Such orders leave future patients exposed to poor practice, while past ones remain unaware that they may have been a victim, says Dr Peter Wilmshurst, consultant cardiologist at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

This evidence of widespread gagging comes amid government insistence that whistleblowers are fully protected under the 1998 Public Interest Disclosure Act, which made it illegal for NHS trusts and other public bodies to include confidentiality clauses preventing the disclosure of information that is in the public interest.

Dr Richard Taylor, Independent MP for Wyre Forest and a member of the Health Select Committee, which condemned the lack of support for whistleblowers in its recent patient safety inquiry, will this week call for an adjournment debate on the issue.

Two 'terrified' local doctors have recently approached Dr Taylor after their concerns about patient safety in the out-of-hours GP service were not taken seriously.

Francesca West, a policy officer at PCaW, which provides legal advice to whistleblowers, said: "Bad employers are using super gags to hush up problems rather than sort them out, and many people feel scared and pushed into accepting these terms".