I thought that today would be a good day to discuss whistleblowing and its impact on acquaintances and friends. Firstly, there is a distinguishing feature between the two. True friends stay by your side through everything. Acquaintances run a mile at the first hint of problems.
I had always been a fairly sociable person. Whistleblowing though was a reality check for me. The good thing about whistleblowing is that it filters out those who were never true friends. Some of my [medical] so called friends became acquaintances then disappeared out of sight. Over the years, I have had a good selection of faithful friends who have always kept me going and more importantly my family. My family are pleasantly eccentric and have taken the whistleblowing issue and adapted to it. My adventures are intently followed in India and in other countries where family exists. It has become much of a novelty, much like a Christmas Cracker where you never know what is going to happen next.
With respect to friends in the medical profession -as medical careers progress, for some reason doctors forget their friends or forget who they were once friends with. Their lives revolve around the arrogance and hierarchy of medicine, they marry, have children, will probably get old and die. This monotony of life is often seen in many people. Through that monotony, they are of the view that they are able to judge others who they have perceive as less than them. I believe many would like to imagine me as a friendless creature, someone they can speak of behind closed doors, to pity or to talk in judgment. Through the years, I have learned to be accepting of those who have a narrow spectrum view of the way life evolves. I shall never deny that the behaviour of my so called medical friends has often left me wondering why I wasted my time with them in the first place. It is also interesting how the stigma of whistleblowing creeps through your worklife and through your personal life.
It is a part of life now but in the early days I found that I had to quickly become self sufficient and independent. By this I mean, developing the ability to spend long periods of many months without associating with people or needing/depending on them. I did this on purpose, to ensure that I toughened up for the future. I called it post whistleblowing training. It is vital not to rely on anyone but yourself. This is an important lesson of whistleblowing - because the battles are difficult, those you deal within authorities are untrustworthy and dark and if you want to win, you have to be single minded. The other important factor is to psychologically toughen up and develop good coping strategies. Whistleblowing happened by accident for me but I had to learn to adapt very fast. As a junior doctor [whistleblower], I lasted longer than any other in the NHS. There has never been any finding against me [ unlike many other whistleblowers]. This is no mean feat and requires hard work. Some often say I make whistleblowing look amazingly easy but believe me - nothing is ever easy. Life after whistleblowing is hard, very hard. I think survival and keeping afloat are the most important issues to keep in mind. It is so difficult that only the toughest survive. Being an established whistleblower is even worse. NHS Employers still have the perception that whistleblowers are loose cannons and are often reluctant to employ them.
It always amuses me somewhat that people are amazingly friendly in the NHS when they have no idea who I am. As soon as they find out about the established whistleblowing, they shut down, never speak to you and avoid you. I have learned to accept this and simply move on. I cannot change the views of those who remain narrow minded. There is always a perception of whistleblowers. A perception where association with them will somehow affect them in whatever way they imagine. Being a whistleblower is often a little like being a leper. To the NHS and its inhabitants, it remains a disability and a stigma. Infact, you don't have to have AIDS in the NHS - you just have to be a whistleblower. This is a cultural phenomenon also described by my friend Prof Steve Bolsin. What amuses me most is that those who avoid you think you don't even notice. Of course, we all notice. Well, in my case, I notice and write about it. I believe though that purposeful isolation and persistent betrayal by people in the NHS is designed to strategically weaken the whistleblower. Once these behaviour patterns are recognised, one can overcome it.
An interesting study of behaviour towards whistleblowers was seen once on a doctors only web site .The early days were interesting. The doctors-only forum inhabitants felt it would be amusing to complain to the GMC in tandem about me. They did what I call a " Penny Mellor effect". In their tiny minds, it was amusing to complain about me for what I wrote. These revolving door complaints provided the GMC with more ammunition against me. There were a few cowards who would not identify themselves at the GMC [having complained]. There was a group of individuals on the doctors only web site who developed a frenzy. They were people who didn't know me, had never met me but felt it within their rights to rid the world of a whistleblower. To the GMC, the more complaints received, the more of a danger you are. There is no recognition of vexatious complaints. This is why Penny Mellor serially complains to the GMC against David Southall and gets away with it. Sadly David has got caught in this net. The frenzy was created by Mellor on the now defunct msbp.com and the frenzy against me was created on the doctors-only site. This is internet disinhibition and interesting cyberpsychology of the modern world.
The GMC simply does not recognise that some people use them as a means of harassment. I was then sentenced to effectively have those complaints pinned behind anything I did. Alarms were set up on the GMC's computer systems against my name. Essentially, they had encouraged the GMC to scrutinise all I did, all I wrote and who I was. Suddenly, for the GMC everything was more acute and abnormal - such as reading Stephen King books or making a typographical error. I suspect most doctors have no idea that the GMC sets up " Alarms" against certain doctors they dislike. We should point out that my references [ which I intend on publishing] show that I was never a danger to the public, there was never any concerns as to my fitness to practise and there were never any patient complaints against me. Everything at the GMC has always revolved around the critical material I have written. We therefore wonder why the GMC paid so much attention to me, so much attention that all my communications via the Alarms set up were to go through Paul Philip prior to response. It may well have had something to do with the fact I was a whistleblower. Of course, they never did get me down a fitness to practise hearing as they would have liked to. Both the GMC and North Staffordshire NHS Trust have always wanted to have me struck off, splashed in the media has they have done David Southall. No doubt Penny Mellor's failed complaint against me was a convenience to the GMC and North Staffordshire NHS Trust.
People develop vendettas for all sorts of reasons, [particularly those with small minds]. One such person was Dr Tim Woodman. Having made a big spectacle of himself in complaining to the GMC against me regarding defamation [ with the GMC having admitted this year that they could not deal with defamation], Woodman could not cope against the warfare I instigated against him and ended up suffering from depression himself. One must never mock the afflicted but there was some strange karma in him accusing me of a mental illness then falling mentally ill himself. Woodman though [ and anyone else] should understand that you only pick a fight with tigers if you can cope with an onslaught back. If you can't cope, don't fight. This applies to all litigation and battles with Trusts. There are few in the world who can cope with the stress and games of litigation or the repercussions of it. If you can't cope, don't whistleblow. Its as simple as that.
Those who prowl doctors-only forums might spot Woodman's whines. I reversed the complaint back on him and fought it while litigating against the GMC. Woodman lost. Woodman though was always going to lose. I won against the GMC at the final hearing. In my world view, there are those who are winners, they are those who cannot be bothered and there are those who are losers. Tim Woodman fell in the same category as the GMC. The rest of the England cannot stand winners.
The doctors-only website sadly had to foot the bill for the antics of their inhabitants. I am told by other users that there are " Report Abuse" buttons. About time too. Put it this way, I didn't find any amusement in the fact that my SHO pinned a defamatory posting from the site on the board of the doctor's mess. I also did not find it amusing to carry around a letter from my GP certifying me mentally fit, never having attended his surgery for anything but a ear infection. I also do not appreciate the abuse of the mental health label. Those who are mentally ill have enough problems living their lives without their illness being used in a game of vendetta/or as a smear tactic.
I describe this because the doctors-only forum is much like a goldfish bowl. Behaviours exhibited there can also be exhibited in the workplace. It is really how all whistleblowers are dealt with. In the end, no one bothers to find out the truth, most believe in a myth and most continue to propagate that myth. One though has to rise above those few who caused the above problems and even forgive them for their misbehaving ways. I say this because no one is infallible. In the end, I had to do whatever I needed to, to achieve survival and to win. People around me may judge but then no one has been in my shoes. In the end we all have to do what we have to do to stay above water especially in Open Water.
As it is nearly midnight, I though have one thing to say about the profession in general. I may have been fairly tough, may not have given a damn about many things and been fairly headstrong but these are all evolutionary adaptations of having to survive whistleblowing. The important thing to realise is this, the vast majority of whistleblowers are simply people who find themselves in certain circumstances which cannot be helped. They are faced with a dilemma in the NHS. There may not be time to rationally debate the pros and cons of whistleblowing. There may be an urgent need to save patients or to do the right thing. Most whistleblowers do not have the willpower or strength to survive these sorts of vindictive onslaughts from all sides of the profession. Life after whistleblowing is very difficult and it is important not to leave them in a desert to fend for themselves. In the end, we should all look after our friends and those in trouble and never lose sight of what is important to us. No one is perfect and tomorrow it may well be you under the scrutiny of the Trust or the GMC. Fate can change by accident as can destiny. Often these two cannot be controlled. It is therefore vital to be physically and emotionally supportive to friends who end up being whistleblowers/or those who end up in trouble. A small amount of kindness is always appreciated and it does not cost much. There is always far far more to life than living in monotone, judging others by your own monotone standards and turning your back to them at a time of need. Professional isolation is not good medicine for doctors in a fragile state. Many of us are often careless and unkind for no reason but it is also important to remember that it may cost the life or the mental health of that person. I never look back on my friends who have left me in the past. They know who they are. It serves no purpose to describe their vindictive behaviour here save to say that I am glad I developed the insight into assessing who are friends and who were acquaintances.
It is through the stigma of whistleblowing that you discover that friendship comes to you in a more real and meaningful way rather than within the frivolity of petty socialising, the show of decadence and the falsity of appearances. This is though a wicked world. In a wicked world, friends should always stand by each other - no matter what.
This is written to thank my friends Daniel Brunswick [sweetie and congrats on your recent win], KC, PC, MK,LD,DH,SF,SD, CE,JL,ST.JN,RP, SV plus my family who have always been there for me and supplied me with large amounts of chocolate.
I had always been a fairly sociable person. Whistleblowing though was a reality check for me. The good thing about whistleblowing is that it filters out those who were never true friends. Some of my [medical] so called friends became acquaintances then disappeared out of sight. Over the years, I have had a good selection of faithful friends who have always kept me going and more importantly my family. My family are pleasantly eccentric and have taken the whistleblowing issue and adapted to it. My adventures are intently followed in India and in other countries where family exists. It has become much of a novelty, much like a Christmas Cracker where you never know what is going to happen next.
With respect to friends in the medical profession -as medical careers progress, for some reason doctors forget their friends or forget who they were once friends with. Their lives revolve around the arrogance and hierarchy of medicine, they marry, have children, will probably get old and die. This monotony of life is often seen in many people. Through that monotony, they are of the view that they are able to judge others who they have perceive as less than them. I believe many would like to imagine me as a friendless creature, someone they can speak of behind closed doors, to pity or to talk in judgment. Through the years, I have learned to be accepting of those who have a narrow spectrum view of the way life evolves. I shall never deny that the behaviour of my so called medical friends has often left me wondering why I wasted my time with them in the first place. It is also interesting how the stigma of whistleblowing creeps through your worklife and through your personal life.
It is a part of life now but in the early days I found that I had to quickly become self sufficient and independent. By this I mean, developing the ability to spend long periods of many months without associating with people or needing/depending on them. I did this on purpose, to ensure that I toughened up for the future. I called it post whistleblowing training. It is vital not to rely on anyone but yourself. This is an important lesson of whistleblowing - because the battles are difficult, those you deal within authorities are untrustworthy and dark and if you want to win, you have to be single minded. The other important factor is to psychologically toughen up and develop good coping strategies. Whistleblowing happened by accident for me but I had to learn to adapt very fast. As a junior doctor [whistleblower], I lasted longer than any other in the NHS. There has never been any finding against me [ unlike many other whistleblowers]. This is no mean feat and requires hard work. Some often say I make whistleblowing look amazingly easy but believe me - nothing is ever easy. Life after whistleblowing is hard, very hard. I think survival and keeping afloat are the most important issues to keep in mind. It is so difficult that only the toughest survive. Being an established whistleblower is even worse. NHS Employers still have the perception that whistleblowers are loose cannons and are often reluctant to employ them.
It always amuses me somewhat that people are amazingly friendly in the NHS when they have no idea who I am. As soon as they find out about the established whistleblowing, they shut down, never speak to you and avoid you. I have learned to accept this and simply move on. I cannot change the views of those who remain narrow minded. There is always a perception of whistleblowers. A perception where association with them will somehow affect them in whatever way they imagine. Being a whistleblower is often a little like being a leper. To the NHS and its inhabitants, it remains a disability and a stigma. Infact, you don't have to have AIDS in the NHS - you just have to be a whistleblower. This is a cultural phenomenon also described by my friend Prof Steve Bolsin. What amuses me most is that those who avoid you think you don't even notice. Of course, we all notice. Well, in my case, I notice and write about it. I believe though that purposeful isolation and persistent betrayal by people in the NHS is designed to strategically weaken the whistleblower. Once these behaviour patterns are recognised, one can overcome it.
An interesting study of behaviour towards whistleblowers was seen once on a doctors only web site .The early days were interesting. The doctors-only forum inhabitants felt it would be amusing to complain to the GMC in tandem about me. They did what I call a " Penny Mellor effect". In their tiny minds, it was amusing to complain about me for what I wrote. These revolving door complaints provided the GMC with more ammunition against me. There were a few cowards who would not identify themselves at the GMC [having complained]. There was a group of individuals on the doctors only web site who developed a frenzy. They were people who didn't know me, had never met me but felt it within their rights to rid the world of a whistleblower. To the GMC, the more complaints received, the more of a danger you are. There is no recognition of vexatious complaints. This is why Penny Mellor serially complains to the GMC against David Southall and gets away with it. Sadly David has got caught in this net. The frenzy was created by Mellor on the now defunct msbp.com and the frenzy against me was created on the doctors-only site. This is internet disinhibition and interesting cyberpsychology of the modern world.
The GMC simply does not recognise that some people use them as a means of harassment. I was then sentenced to effectively have those complaints pinned behind anything I did. Alarms were set up on the GMC's computer systems against my name. Essentially, they had encouraged the GMC to scrutinise all I did, all I wrote and who I was. Suddenly, for the GMC everything was more acute and abnormal - such as reading Stephen King books or making a typographical error. I suspect most doctors have no idea that the GMC sets up " Alarms" against certain doctors they dislike. We should point out that my references [ which I intend on publishing] show that I was never a danger to the public, there was never any concerns as to my fitness to practise and there were never any patient complaints against me. Everything at the GMC has always revolved around the critical material I have written. We therefore wonder why the GMC paid so much attention to me, so much attention that all my communications via the Alarms set up were to go through Paul Philip prior to response. It may well have had something to do with the fact I was a whistleblower. Of course, they never did get me down a fitness to practise hearing as they would have liked to. Both the GMC and North Staffordshire NHS Trust have always wanted to have me struck off, splashed in the media has they have done David Southall. No doubt Penny Mellor's failed complaint against me was a convenience to the GMC and North Staffordshire NHS Trust.
People develop vendettas for all sorts of reasons, [particularly those with small minds]. One such person was Dr Tim Woodman. Having made a big spectacle of himself in complaining to the GMC against me regarding defamation [ with the GMC having admitted this year that they could not deal with defamation], Woodman could not cope against the warfare I instigated against him and ended up suffering from depression himself. One must never mock the afflicted but there was some strange karma in him accusing me of a mental illness then falling mentally ill himself. Woodman though [ and anyone else] should understand that you only pick a fight with tigers if you can cope with an onslaught back. If you can't cope, don't fight. This applies to all litigation and battles with Trusts. There are few in the world who can cope with the stress and games of litigation or the repercussions of it. If you can't cope, don't whistleblow. Its as simple as that.
Those who prowl doctors-only forums might spot Woodman's whines. I reversed the complaint back on him and fought it while litigating against the GMC. Woodman lost. Woodman though was always going to lose. I won against the GMC at the final hearing. In my world view, there are those who are winners, they are those who cannot be bothered and there are those who are losers. Tim Woodman fell in the same category as the GMC. The rest of the England cannot stand winners.
The doctors-only website sadly had to foot the bill for the antics of their inhabitants. I am told by other users that there are " Report Abuse" buttons. About time too. Put it this way, I didn't find any amusement in the fact that my SHO pinned a defamatory posting from the site on the board of the doctor's mess. I also did not find it amusing to carry around a letter from my GP certifying me mentally fit, never having attended his surgery for anything but a ear infection. I also do not appreciate the abuse of the mental health label. Those who are mentally ill have enough problems living their lives without their illness being used in a game of vendetta/or as a smear tactic.
I describe this because the doctors-only forum is much like a goldfish bowl. Behaviours exhibited there can also be exhibited in the workplace. It is really how all whistleblowers are dealt with. In the end, no one bothers to find out the truth, most believe in a myth and most continue to propagate that myth. One though has to rise above those few who caused the above problems and even forgive them for their misbehaving ways. I say this because no one is infallible. In the end, I had to do whatever I needed to, to achieve survival and to win. People around me may judge but then no one has been in my shoes. In the end we all have to do what we have to do to stay above water especially in Open Water.
As it is nearly midnight, I though have one thing to say about the profession in general. I may have been fairly tough, may not have given a damn about many things and been fairly headstrong but these are all evolutionary adaptations of having to survive whistleblowing. The important thing to realise is this, the vast majority of whistleblowers are simply people who find themselves in certain circumstances which cannot be helped. They are faced with a dilemma in the NHS. There may not be time to rationally debate the pros and cons of whistleblowing. There may be an urgent need to save patients or to do the right thing. Most whistleblowers do not have the willpower or strength to survive these sorts of vindictive onslaughts from all sides of the profession. Life after whistleblowing is very difficult and it is important not to leave them in a desert to fend for themselves. In the end, we should all look after our friends and those in trouble and never lose sight of what is important to us. No one is perfect and tomorrow it may well be you under the scrutiny of the Trust or the GMC. Fate can change by accident as can destiny. Often these two cannot be controlled. It is therefore vital to be physically and emotionally supportive to friends who end up being whistleblowers/or those who end up in trouble. A small amount of kindness is always appreciated and it does not cost much. There is always far far more to life than living in monotone, judging others by your own monotone standards and turning your back to them at a time of need. Professional isolation is not good medicine for doctors in a fragile state. Many of us are often careless and unkind for no reason but it is also important to remember that it may cost the life or the mental health of that person. I never look back on my friends who have left me in the past. They know who they are. It serves no purpose to describe their vindictive behaviour here save to say that I am glad I developed the insight into assessing who are friends and who were acquaintances.
It is through the stigma of whistleblowing that you discover that friendship comes to you in a more real and meaningful way rather than within the frivolity of petty socialising, the show of decadence and the falsity of appearances. This is though a wicked world. In a wicked world, friends should always stand by each other - no matter what.
This is written to thank my friends Daniel Brunswick [sweetie and congrats on your recent win], KC, PC, MK,LD,DH,SF,SD, CE,JL,ST.JN,RP, SV plus my family who have always been there for me and supplied me with large amounts of chocolate.
0 comments:
Post a Comment