Now a gag on doctors and nurses: Hundreds being prevented from exposing poor care in hospitals by 'Stalinist' rules

Hundreds of doctors, nurses and NHS managers  are being prevented from exposing poor care by  ‘Stalinist’ gagging orders.

A leading surgeon said the case of Gary  Walker, who broke his silence to tell the Mail about high death rates, was just  the tip of the iceberg.

Mike Parker said the secret deals to keep  former staff quiet were a ‘threat to the survival of the Health Service’.

Freedom of Information requests show that 90  per cent of severance agreements between health trusts and doctors have gagging  clauses. They stop frontline staff revealing their concerns about patient safety  and hospital standards. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt says he will write to all  health trusts, urging them to drop the clauses or face ‘the consequences’ if  they don’t.

But the row has placed question marks over  the future of the most powerful man in the NHS, Sir David Nicholson, who has  clung to his job despite presiding over the Mid Staffordshire hospital disaster  that cost the lives of 1,200 patients.

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