Doctors’ leaders welcome “long overdue” plans to regulate NHS managers

NHS managers who silence whistleblowing doctors or endanger patients through misconduct could be sacked and permanently barred from working in the NHS, under new proposals.

Regulating health service managers for the first time will tackle a “culture of cover up” that has been present in numerous patient safety scandals in recent years, the government said. Health minister Karin Smyth, said, “To turn around our NHS we need the best and brightest managing the health service, a culture of transparency that keeps patients safe, and an end to the revolving door that allows failed managers to pick up in a new NHS organisation.”

Proposed options for regulating NHS managers include statutory mechanisms that would place legal obligations on employers to prevent certain managers working in the health service, full …