Smoke and Mirrors: An NHS whistleblower witch-hunt

Peter Duffy’s first, and supposedly last book detailed his whistleblowing to the Care Quality Commission and General Medical Council about deteriorating clinical and surgical standards in a National Health Service Trust in England.Describing the series of detriments and retaliation suffered at the hands of fellow NHS clinicians and managers, the story appeared to end in late 2018 with three employment tribunal hearings and a verdict of unfair constructive dismissal, generating headlines in regional and national newspapers.By this point and, unable to find work in the UK, Duffy had settled into a solitary new life, practicing his surgical specialty and vocation on the Isle of Man, a Crown dependency with a separate health service from the NHS, whilst returning to Lancaster whenever possible to revisit his old home, family and relatives.Resigned to working overseas for his last decade of medical service, at least the family’s future was secure and he could continue with his surgical work.But the reach and enduring enmity of the UK’s state-run National Health Service is not to be underestimated.Smoke and Mirrors is a dark, factual and chilling account that would be dismissed as implausible if it were fiction. At times resembling a contemporary Kafkaesque nightmare, as the narrative unfolds it becomes clear that the NHS is nowhere near finished with a doctor, surgeon and whistleblower who dared to stand his ground and defend his principles.Far from being over, the harassment, retaliation and psychological harms are about to be dramatically intensified.‘And somewhere or other, quite anonymously, there were directing brains who coordinated the whole effort and laid down the lines of policy which made it necessary that this fragment of the past should be preserved, that one falsified and the other rubbed out of existence.’George Orwell ‘1984’In Peter’s new book ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ he speaks about ‘the corrupt, disorientating and Orwellian world into which the vulnerable, naive and solitary whistleblower stumbles.’What truth he speaks; in this sequel to his incredibly important exposure of whistleblowing retribution at Morecambe Bay’s NHS Trust he reveals the depths to which those trusted with IT services in the NHS will go to defame and smear an employee who dares to speak the truth.Peter’s courage and tenacity against those who have tried to destroy him provides valuable insight and a guiding light for all those who may find themselves in a similar position fighting toxic management in the NHS.Ms Sue Allison, Consultant Radiographer and NHS whistleblower.