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MPs call for inquiry into troubled urology unit after whistleblower publishes book

BMJ 2019; 366 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l5602 (Published 17 September 2019) Cite this as: BMJ 2019;366:l5602
  1. Clare Dyer
  1. The BMJ

MPs are pressing England’s health secretary, Matt Hancock, for an inquiry into urology services at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust after a whistleblowing urologist lifted the lid on a catalogue of clinical failings in a hard hitting book.

At a meeting on 10 September the trust’s board of governors discussed a possible referral to the police after Peter Duffy’s book, Whistle in the Wind, accused colleagues of disobeying instructions from a coroner who concluded that failures in care had contributed to a patient’s death.

Duffy was forced out of the trust after raising concerns about three colleagues and was awarded compensation of £102 000 (€115 000; $129 000) for unfair constructive dismissal last year after a bitter legal battle.1 He accused the trust of being willing to “financially annihilate” him and his family.

He now …

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