A TEAM tasked with investigating bullying at East Yorkshire hospitals is set to produce its report to health bosses.
Conciliation service ACAS was called in by senior management of Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust after hospital inspectors uncovered a culture of bullying at Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham.
Junior doctors and nurses told inspectors they felt intimidated and bullied to meet targets, carry out medical procedures they had not been trained in and take on additional work to cope with staff shortages.
Former chief executive Phil Morley resigned in April just weeks before the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published its report into Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which also raised concerns over staff shortages.
Professor Ian Philp told Hull councillors ACAS has now concluded its work after interviewing staff who claim to have been the victims of bullies.
He said: "It would be wrong to pre-empt the outcome of that report, but we have started doing things already to create a positive culture within the organisation."
Addressing a meeting of Hull's Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Commission, Prof Philp said most of the concerns raised by the CQC had actually been pointed out to inspectors by the trust itself.
"We had asked them to look at services we were concerned about and for specific recommendations of how we could improve, based on their expertise," he said.
"There was only one surprise in the report. The surprise was about the bullying culture within the organisation.
"That might not have been a surprise to everybody as there have been individuals who have shared concerns about how they had been treated.
"But it did make us as a trust board step back and think we've got a problem here and let's do something about it."
As well as calling in ACAS, Prof Philp appointed Dr Makani Purva, director of medical education, as the "anti-bullying tzar".
A new culture of working, pioneered by Harvard University in America, is now being introduced at the hospitals and staff can now raise concerns higher up the management chain if they feel uncomfortable raising problems of bullying with their line managers.
Dr Purva is in the process of introducing a new culture at both hospitals.
New chief executive Chris Long, former boss of NHS Hull, is due to take over at the helm of the trust at the end of the month following the departure of Mr Morley, who is now chief executive of the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Essex.
