THE REAL FACE OF UK HEALTH SYSTEM & Indian Doctors in the UK; suppression and victimization of whistleblowers

Story By: Sumeet Verma

India, Punjab

An Indian doctor, who had the guts to raise his voice against patient care malpractices, by a corporate giant, Operose health, UK, has been terminated. Operose Health is a division of the American company, Centene UK and is contracted by the UK’s health system, NHS. In the past, NHS was a totally government-based service but now stands, Americanized.

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The Indian doctor was penalised for raising concerns, and refusing to follow the blatant wrong instructions of the management whilst working at Operose Health. He raised the concerns as per protocol internally first and then to NHS authorities. However, no action has been taken even a year later and he has been terminated. Also, he has been victimised by false cases made and framed against him. His other potential employers have also been pushed to never give him a job again, hence totally finishing his career.

Some specific regular malpractices alleged against the company include:

1. Having doctors on self-employed or worker contracts rather than employees and hence denying them with any whistle blowing, grievance or complaint procedure rights.

2. Forcing the doctors and dictating them to abide by their own guidelines rather than the national guidelines so as to save costs and even over ruling doctors decisions.

3. Most of these doctors employed are of Asian origin whereas the senior doctors in the bureaucracy are of the local origins who are telling the junior doctors what to do even if against the clinical norms.

4. Hiring of unqualified, unskilled and cheap technicians for the technician jobs. Many of them with no prior experience and even recent school pass outs are taken. Some of them or even ex-postmen who are just hired for saving costs. Most of these people are given zero-hour contracts.

5. Poor triage services, even serious conditions managed by unqualified people.

6. Referral to the hospital when done by the doctors even for serious conditions like suspected cancer are cancelled.

7. Any doctor whistleblowing is severely victimised and/or sacked.

8. Doctors regularly threatened not to raise voice against decisions that are made by the senior managers even if they compromise patient care.

9. Patient tests repeatedly not done at the right time and in many cases, not done for years to save costs.

10. Unskilled clinical leads with no expertise in the particular speciality.

Being from abroad, Asian doctors find it tough to raise voice.  The doctor despite numerous requests is also refused copies of the patient notes (of the fake cases framed against him) on the pretext that he was never an employee of the company, This is despite him having worked for 6 long years. The complainant has become a defendant, as happens in corporate fights.

Hence a voice that was genuinely acting in the patient’s interests has been successfully suppressed. No protection or help given to him from the NHS or the government system in respect of the doctor’s sincere efforts to expose the malpractices, which involved the care of thousands of patients. This is despite repeated reminders to the local health authority Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) the local MP, health secretary and the CEO of the local trust, Worcester.

When contacted the Operose CEO through mail the communication department categorically denied the charges.

We contacted the CCG, Worcester, instead of replying to the specific allegations, sent the following reply, “‘The CCG has contracted Operose to deliver ophthalmology services for patients in Worcester. As with any provider contract, the CCG undertakes regular quality and performance audits to ensure high quality care for patients and value for the taxpayer.”

An investigation, which is alleged to be eyewash was conducted by a doctors has huge deficiencies. On being asked specific questions, a doctor has refused to respond to the Indian doctor and also to us despite repeated requests to his office and to him directly. The CMO of the organization, who is alleged to be the master strategist in this, refuses to reply despite request.

Operose health apparently enjoys excellent relations with the UK government, with their last CEO promoted to be the adviser to the PM. The doctor also told that he cannot even apply for justice at employment court, as the doctors are tactfully hired as “contractors” and not “employees”.  Such is the justice system for doctors in UK who stand up against malpractices in the UK. A senior doctor of Indian origin while talking on condition of anonymity said, “We feel blessed to be living in India and our doctors should feel very satisfied and proud that they live in a land where the law is far stronger and in favour of the patients and does everything to protect its own patients. We have information on numerous Indian doctors settled in the UK, who have suffered due to such an unfair and unjust system. Our Indian doctors should seriously think before leaving their motherland to serve and work in such an unethical and unfair system”.