In Support Of Dr Kim Holt

Excerpt From The Times (02/10)

David Holt said his wife, Kim, a consultant of 25 years' standing, was "in shock" after the world-famous hospital advertised her job recently without even telling her.

"She couldn't believe it," he said. "She was speechless. This kind of behaviour completely blows out of the water any belief in the hospital's good faith, or their ability to change the oppressive culture Kim has experienced."

The move is the latest in a string of cases where the NHS's promises to protect whistle-blowers have proved false.

The inquiry into the Stafford hospital scandal has heard how medical staff who tried to warn of fatal failings at the trust were threatened into silence by NHS managers.

This month, a London consultant, Ramon Niekrash, won an employment tribunal case against Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, after he was victimised for raising concerns about cost-cutting.

Dr Holt's MP, Lynne Featherstone, has said that colleagues who supported Dr Holt are being "bullied" and "pressured" by the hospital.

However, further staff have come forward to speak of serious problems at Great Ormond Street.

In December, Great Ormond Street promised to reach a "swift and amicable solution" with Dr Holt after a damning NHS London report largely vindicated her criticisms of the child abuse clinic in Haringey, for which Great Ormond Street provided the doctors.

Dr Holt has spent the last three years on "special leave" since warning – more than a year before Baby P came to the clinic – that she and other doctors there were dangerously overworked and a child would die unless action was taken.

Dr Da Vinci is once again fuming! A brilliant physician working at a world renowned centre with a global reputation in her speciality is being hounded out of her job!
Her crime? Raising concerns about the safety of her patients.

At a time that we are desperate for peadiatricians Dr Holt; a gifted and experienced peadiatrician has been on 'leave' for a whole THREE YEARS.

I often look back home to the UK as a model for Nigeria to follow especially in terms of healthcare policy, but incidents like this show that corruption is indeed endemic is every society and requires people to unite and take a stand against it!

In Nigeria, the Flying Doctors Nigeria continue to work with the government to develop the healthcare system. We also encourage an open culture of reflective learning in our own organisation; reviewing and examining each step of every mission.

I am thankful that I am in the position to do this. Every doctor should be able to look at the structure of their organisation and constructively critisise it with a view to improvement. We are our patients advocates. This is our raison d'etre.

This is true patient centred care.