A Canadian Mountie.

Very Hot

I believe the problem with most whistle blowers is that to cope, they have to find distractions. My distractions are men, chocolate, wonderbras and Shirley Bassey!. This has saved me from addiction to substances and depression. I don't even smoke. Whistleblowers though suffer badly from all those things because the journey to vindicate themselves is such a long one. Some may even claim depression when they litigate but I have always considered litigation a meaningless quest for justice on occasion. It is though essential to change systems and to assist employment prospects. I believe it is vital to create a vacuum of survival. That is to be self sufficient in survival and to be able to cope without the input of other humans. Self sufficiency requires training of oneself. You have to extract yourself from the usual manner in which society functions and learn to survive much like a rattle snake survives in a desert. I say this because whistleblowers experience the worst in the way of loss. Loss is difficult to cope with mentally. It can break you if you let it. It is important to remember that day to day survival is vital. You must never measure yourself by anyone elses standards. Those are standards based on social climbing and if whistleblowers were conformists, they would never have whistleblown. I believe the most important coping strategy is to learn not to feel lonely. Whistleblowers have a path to lead. You either choose it and dedicate yourself to it or you give up. Whichever path is chosen - has to preserve your mental state first and foremost.

Loss in relationships, loss in friendships, loss in reputation, loss in finances are all a whistleblower experiences. I have probably been a victim to most of those but through that time, I have always coped by relying on my default strategies of survival. I am not a perfect human being but I know I am a survivor. There are many who have criticised the manner in which I have gone through things in the past but I never had any plan, there is no easy way for a whistleblower. There is merely the least crooked path with the least effect on your health. And that is the one I took. Others may have a better path, if they do - please let me know.

I think though once you have lost everything, there is only one way to go and that is up.

Those who have suffered the trials and tribulations of the MMC should also understand this concept. Medicine is one of those vocations where any admission of weakness is considered a failing. The other issue regarding the profession is everyone's reluctance to assist or simply befriend the whistleblower or someone in trouble. Helping people is free, it is also human. Being kind is free as well, it is also human. I believe that our profession takes away those two qualities from people in general. I found that with my association with Professionals Against Child Abuse .

It amused me greatly that I was dealt with at arms length :). Once a whistleblower, always a whistleblower and to them someone who is untrustworthy. As much as I have assisted them, they were unable to show a drop of kindness and that is a product of the stoical medical profession. That is what the public find uncomfortable to deal with. And that is what widens the gap between doctor and patient. It was at that point I understood that nothing had changed in terms of their perceptions of whistleblowing. They remained the same narrow minded medical professionals with their own perceptions of who whistleblowers were. I also discovered finally that I could never fight against people's perceptions of whistleblowers.

For many years, I experienced a strange reaction of avoidance when it came to doctors who knew I was a whistleblower. After nearly a decade, I have gotten used to it and accepted it and moved on. I didn't understand it all until I came across Robbie Coull's excellent piece on whistleblowing. Robbie has gone to Mountie Country. Basically Robbie is currently settled in Canada. Robbie though was the first one to write a practical article on whistleblowing. It helped me a great deal to understand the cultural aspects of the medical profession. I came to understand the harsh reality of the NHS today - nothing had changed past the Bristol Inquiry. Even Steve Bolsin agreed with me.

Robbie wrote:-

"Technique--Make it clear to the whistleblower that there is no place in the NHS for people who are not team players. Imply that you will see to it that they are blacklisted from working again in your area or specialty, and that they will not get a reference for their current post. Avoid making this threat openly if possible, but make sure that the subject understands."

Well, there you have it. Robbie says what I experienced.

I have no idea whether Robbie wants to be a Mountie or not but he would look highly sexy in a uniform! We have to ask Robbie whether he would do me a favour and take a picture of himself in a mountie outfit and send it over :) [ signed of course]. Call it a whistleblower accessory and essential requirement for his fan base. Mind you, Robbie's writing is fabulous. His sentence construction is much like eating Galaxy slowly - reading his material is much like feeling silk. His gentle persona comes through his work and I am not surprised he was wrapped up neatly into a marriage package deal with his wonderful wife. Any woman reading his material would probably fall in love with him. It is that quality of writer/doctor sexiness.If you want to read more of Robbie, he wrote the excellent Locum Doctor Handbook. I have read segments of the book and it is indeed fantastic.

There is one point I must make, I disagree with Robbie in terms of PIDA. The Public Interest Act is grossly ineffective as Ian Perkin found out. There were great hopes after the Bristol Inquiry but I find it ironic that there are no procedures whereby whistleblowers can report their concerns to the Health Commission or the Coroner. The CHRE cannot even take up concerns dropped by the General Medical Council early in their procedures. The implementation of good and effective procedures to assess the legitimate concerns of whistleblowers has not occurred. The authorities do not want to listen either. That is probably why I am writing this as opposed to writing endless letters to the authorities to change the system. The Health Ombudsman called me "determined" and I called them "incompetent".

In my view, having travelled through each ineffective system in the NHS, I would have preferred to have been married to a Canadian Mountie and lived happily after in Canada. Alas, my experiences as a whistlelower has changed me as a person and even though I have a long suffering wannabe Mountie in England, whose hair has turned grey due to my antics, marriage has always been far from my agenda. Now, having a collection of screensavers of devilishly handsome married men is another matter :)! There is always something delicious in admiring what you cannot have :). We must all have our vices as they say :).