Why the NHS Needs an Employment Ombudsman. Now!

Andrea Knowles

4 min read

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2 hours ago

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It’s been a while since I have let loose my usual brand of putting the world to rights.

I’m back, with a new target. They are not the grown, cis men with an unhealthy penchant for white backgrounds and red crosses, no, no. This is about myself and the Secretary of State, The Rt. Hon. Wes Streeting. I wrote to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) with an idea. All I need to get the ball rolling is ministerial approval. Cue tumbleweed.

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I briefly met him at a gala earlier in the year. What struck me about his speech was a distinct lack of understanding about the complexities of the NHS, and, more alarmingly, the lack of mention of NHS staff and any challenges they face. This was laid bare in the recent Public Accounts Committee’s warning that current NHS reforms are failing: recovery targets for waiting times are being missed, officials lack “fresh thinking and radical energy,” and the abolition of NHS England is being pursued without a clear plan risking both patient care and staff stability.

That accounts for the lack of mention of staff. They seem irrelevant.

A fair, safe and accountable NHS must start with justice for its own workforce.

When I joined the NHS as a nurse, circa twenty years ago, I believed in its founding…