Responding to the recent publication of John Sturrock's report into the cultural issues related to allegations of Bullying and Harassment in the NHS Highland, Professor Michael Griffin OBE, President of The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh said:
"We are greatful for the extensive work that John Sturrock has overseen identifying the scale of fear, intimidation and inappropriate behaviour at NHSH. Indeed, the problems identified go beyond bullying with many staff reporting that they have suffered significant and serious harm and trauma, feel anger and a sense of injustice and what to have their story heard.
As our #LetsRemoveIt work has identified, such cultures have a corrosive effect on staff morale and patient care. Therefore we welcome the report's belief that steps can be taken, both restorative and preventative, to move NHSH away from a culture of control to one based on more distributed, multi-disciplinary and collective leadership and decision making.
We also support the recommended moves towards early interventions and the provision of training to empowering those affected and bystanders to raise concerns early. Introducing other different approaches which move away from an adversarial approach to this issue is also required.
Having identified the problems and possible solutions we also agree that NHSH could become a role model of positive cultural change in the NHS. Royal Colleges have a role to play in this, and so we welcome any opportunity to work with NHSH and the Scottish Government to reset the whole organisation."