Ulster Unionist Health Spokesperson, Alan Chambers MLA has said the ability of the Belfast Trust to respond to this week’s damning report will be measured in demonstrable actions and not words alone.

Alan Chambers said, “I very much welcome the proactive approach being taken by the Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt MLA, in response to the shocking contents of a leaked report into the working environment at the Cardiac Hub in the Royal Victoria Hospital, operating under the management of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.

“Details emerging from the report were both disturbing and completely unacceptable. The reports of staff being bullied, not only in the wards of the hospital but also within operating theatres, were truly shocking. It would not be acceptable in any workplace, but it especially has no place in an operating theatre where life-and-death surgery is being performed.

“I’m glad that the Minister and his Department have demanded answers from the Chair of the Belfast Trust and have already received assurances that the recommendations of the leaked report are being acted upon at pace. I suspect they will also seek to establish that the Trust has the capacity to ensure an urgent change in the culture of working practices. Immediate actions and improvements, however, and not words alone, will be the yardstick deployed by the Minister to ensure the welfare and well-being of every member of our health service, and those that they treat.

“In the absence of receiving these guarantees from the leadership of the Trust, I am confident that the Minister will take whatever actions necessary to ensure urgent and total improvement, along with the putting in place of measures to change the disgraceful working culture highlighted in the report.

“The Minister has already acknowledged that the content of the report may give others working in the health service the encouragement to come forward and report any toxic culture in other health settings. As a member of the Health Committee at Stormont, I’d fully echo his calls for staff to come forward if they have witnessed similar experiences or concerns. If such reports are forthcoming, I am confident that the Minister will address these with the concern and urgency that he has expressed in relation to the events in the RVH Cardiac Hub.

“If the report has provided any level of comfort, it is that patient care was not compromised by the actions of those responsible for the disgraceful contents of the report. It is a testament to the dedication of our overall health staff that despite what they were having to endure behind the scenes, they did not let this interfere with the pleasant and professional care they give to those patients under their care. Care for which they are rightly renowned.”