CORONAVIRUS concerns made up one third of cases for the NHS whistleblowing hotline in the most recent six months, a report has shown.
Calls to the Whistleblowing Alert and Advice Services for NHS Scotland are published at regular intervals.
The latest publication, which covers May to October last year, shows more complaints were made regarding coronavirus than anything else.
More than 100 calls were made to the dedicated freephone line, with 33 individuals telling call handlers they were health service staff.
Nurses, doctors, carers and clerical staff were amongst those making disclosures.
Covid-19 related issues were the “predominant concerns”, the paper states.
These covered inadequate PPE provision, breach of government social distancing guidelines and incorrect classification of individuals as “key workers”.
Other calls pertained to patient safety, ethical issues like poor staff conduct and concern over working practices.
There was a decrease in the level of Covid-19 calls on the previous six months, when they made up around 50% of cases.
More calls also took place during that period, which ran from November 2019 to April 2020, taking in the beginning of the first UK lockdown.
The details of the latest cases are not known due to confidentiality rules.
However, the report, published this week on the Scottish Government website, reveals that four whistleblowers were advised to speak to an external regulator, with three others directed to senior managers and designated whistleblowing contacts recommended in eight cases.
The reports came from nine different branches of NHS Scotland, including NHS24, the Scottish Ambulance Service and seven individual health boards.
Staff working in Dumfries and Galloway sought support, as did others from the Forth Valley and Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board areas.
Other contacts related to matters in the Highlands, Lothian, Tayside and Western Isles regions.
The report will be the last to be carried out ahead of the switch to the Independent National Whistleblowing Officer under Holyrood reforms.
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