Whistleblower suspended - Patients wait

IT’S almost a year since legislation — the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 — to protect whistleblowers came into force but it seems the spirit of that legislation has yet to have as positive an impact it might.

Des McSweeney, a psychiatric nurse in South Lee Mental Health Services and a Siptu shop steward, wrote a piece for this paper in which he expressed concerns about a new €15m acute psychiatric unit at Cork University Hospital.

Mr McSweeney has been told by the HSE that he had “engaged [with the media] in a manner which is inconsistent with the aforementioned policies and procedures” and that he had been placed “off duty with pay”. This is hardly a celebration of transparency and seems designed to dissuade rather than embrace a policy of openness and honesty.