MANY doctors in Wales feel bullied and harassed after raising concerns in the workplace, a survey has revealed.

More than 500 doctors responded to a British Medical Association (BMA) Wales survey on raising such concerns - and the organisation believes it provides strong evidence that the attitude to the issue in NHS Wales is far from open, honest or responsive.

Almost three-in-five of the respondents (58.6 per cent) said they had raised a concern about patient safety in the workplace over the last three months, and more than a third of them said that to the best of their knowledge, no action had been taken.

More than half (51.8 per cent) put the cause of the most recent patient safety incident they had reported down to systemic causes, such as the drive to meet targets, or inadequate facilities.

Almost a third (32.5 per cent) identified unfilled staff vacancies as the reason, and a quarter (25.9 per cent) attributed it to a higher than usual workload.

Sixty per cent of respondents said that as a direct result of having raised a concern about patient safety, they had experienced bullying or harassment.

The chairman of the BMA’s Welsh Council, Dr Phil Banfield, said that doctors care passionately about their patients and having the confidence to be able to raise concerns on their behalf is vital.

"To make this a reality we need a culture of openness within the NHS, not one where raising concerns can leave doctors feeling harassed or marginalised," he said. 

"This survey shows that we have a situation where some doctors no longer raise concerns, either because they feel the problem is widely known already and accepted, or that nothing would be done about it.

"It is hugely worrying that over 60 per cent of doctors surveyed are reporting that they have experienced bullying or harassment after raising concerns. This is not the NHS in Wales we aspire to.

“It is important that patients and health professionals are assured that when the health service shows signs of serious concerns, that these concerns are dealt with robustly, quickly and fairly to reassure staff who work in the NHS daily. 

“The NHS needs to develop a culture that avoids serious concerns developing in the first place. This requires a change in attitude and values in senior management and those with leadership responsibilities, such that raising concerns by staff should be welcomed and positively reinforced so that it becomes routine and everybody’s business to identify and put right early concerns wherever they occur."

The survey findings also show that 84.8 per cent of respondents report long-term unfilled staff vacancies in their workplace, and 69 per cent said staff in their unit work longer hours than is best for patient care.

Dr Banfield said the results show the strain doctors are under on the frontline of care, and added: "It is imperative that these fundamental problems are addressed to create an environment where patient safety is paramount."