WHISTLEBLOWING POLICY - Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital

• if applicable, your staff side representative ;• the independent charity Public Concern at Work on 0207 404 6609. Theirlawyers can give you free confidential advice at any stage about how to raisea concern about serious malpractice at work.7.1 External ContactsWhile we hope these guidelines give you the reassurance you need to raise suchmatters internally, we recognise that there may be circumstances where you canproperly report matters to outside bodies, such as professional regulators or thepolice. Public Concern at Work or, if applicable, your staff side representative, will beable to advise you on such an option and on the circumstances in which you may beable to contact an outside body safely.If you are considering making a disclosure to the media you are strongly advised tofirst seek guidance from a professional, or other representative body. Alternativelyyou may wish to discuss the matter with your manager or professional head.Whilst we hope these guidelines give you the reassurance you need to raise suchmatters internally, we would rather you raised a matter with the appropriate regulator(likely to be the Care Quality Commission) than not at all. Provided you are acting ingood faith and have reasonable grounds for raising the concern, you can also contactthe statutory bodies/organisations shown on Appendix B.If you make the decision to refer to an outside body, you may wish to considerinforming the Chief Executive. However it should be made clear that staff are notrequired to do so.8. IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIEDIf you are dissatisfied with our response, remember you can go to the other levelsand bodies detailed in these guidelines.While we cannot guarantee that we will respond to all matters in the way that youmight wish, we will try to handle the matter fairly and properly. By using theseguidelines, you will help us to achieve this.9. ReferencesBritish Standards Institution Whistleblowing Arrangements – Code of PracticeACASWhistleblowing PolicyJSCNC Approved October 2008OMG Approved November 2008Trust Exec March 2009Governance Committee September 2009Trust Exec September 2009 10 of 21JSCNC October 2008