The Perils of Whistle-Blowing

I don't know which I find more despicable, the fact that a HIV positive child could be placed with foster parents, without them being told of the baby's condition, therefore placing the health of the baby at risk through lack of treatment, and that of the foster-parents through risk of infection (baby sick, faeces, drool etc.) or that the nurse who revealed this deception was first sacked by her employers, the Newham University Hospital Trust, and then struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council for 'breaching patient confidentiality'.
The High Court up-held the nurse's appeal against the NFC's decision on the grounds that fresh evidence had come to light; a letter which it is said was written by the Trust’s head of employment and which, if genuine, would throw a completely new light on the disciplinary charges.
Nevertheless, she is now fighting a second attempt by the Council to strike her from the nursing register.

The nurse, concerned for the safety of the baby born is 2008, as well as the foster parents and their three young children, who had no idea they were exposed to possible risk of infection, initially complained to her superiors at the Newham University Hospital Trust claiming it was unacceptable that the human rights of the mother, who had HIV and wanted to hide her status, were considered more important than protecting foster families.
It was only after four months of inaction that she finally decided to go public on the issue in the hope that something might be done.

She was sacked in 2009 and it was said in Court that her superiors were embarrassed by the disclosures she had made to the press (I bet they were), that she was ‘seen as a threat by some colleagues’, that allegations against her were ‘exaggerated or contrived’ and that some managers ‘instinctively closed ranks’ against her.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of this case are I find it repugnant that a Hospital Trust would engineer a deliberate cover-up and ignore a professional nurse's concerns in the way Newham University Hospital Trust seems to have done.

I think the  nurse concerned was very brave to go up against a powerful establishment such as a hospital trust, putting her job and career on the line in defence of what she believed to be 'the right thing to do', although I don't hold out much hope for her success. Those in positions of power will move Heaven and Earth to protect themselves and their establishments and without a 'whistle-blowers charter', something which would give real protection to those brave enough to expose the incompetent, the deceitful and the criminal, then means will always be found, or manufactured, to get rid of those such as she who 'blow the whistle' on wrong-doing.