Consultant Pathologist, Dr Michael McKenna, decided to come forward and detail his experience as a Consultant in the Southern Health and Social Care Trust after Health Minister Mike Nesbitt encouraged HSC staff to speak up on any issues or concerns they experience within the HSC system.
By way of background, on 30th May 2025, the Health Minister indicated that the behaviours detailed in a recent report on the Cardiac Surgical Unit of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust are “appalling and bring shame on our health service” and that he would be “holding the Trust’s senior management accountable for its response to the report”.
It has been noted that at one point, a surgical procedure had to be cancelled owing to “interpersonal differences in theatre” between surgical staff and that relations had broken down to the extent where four surgeons from within the team were “working from home”.
The Belfast Trust since acknowledged that “staff felt hurt and unable to speak out” and said it is “committed to making changes which we have begun implementing”.
In response to the damning report, the Health Minister has been holding meetings with BHSCT Chair, Mr Ciaran Mulgrew, trade unions and professional bodies. Further, on 5th June 2025 the Minister announced that the Department’s performance accountability for BHSCT has been raised to Level 5 – “the highest level”.
The Minister emphasised the need to ensure that the “overall culture” of the entire HSC system is “welcome for all those who work there” and “every employee with concerns about bullying or other unacceptable behaviours must be properly listened to and supported”. The Minister is also “committed to ensuring that all staff across the HSC system come to work in environments and settings which support and value them and enable them to give their best to the patients they serve”. The Minister also expressed that he is “committed to ensuring that the patient’s voice and lived experience is at the core of how we respond”.
In the wake of same, on 12th June 2025 UTV exclusively reported on an interview they conducted with Consultant Pathologist Dr Michael McKenna, who blew the whistle on Cervical Screening issues which arose in the Southern Health and Social Care Trust. We previously reported that over 17,500 women in the Southern Trust area have been recalled owing to concerns about the accuracy of previously analysed cervical screening tests. All of the impacted patients are having their previous test results re-examined.
Dr McKenna, a Consultant Pathologist with more than 15 years experience, informed UTV that his motivation for speaking up was to protect the public by flagging serious issues in SHSCT and that the encouragement by the Minister to speak up “was a powerful motivator”. However, Dr McKenna described in detail the response by the Public Health Agency to the issues which he flagged. He met with the PHA in August 2022 regarding the SHSCT cervical screening issues and the meeting “did not go as expected”. Dr McKenna described a “hostile and defensive environment” which left him feeling “devastated” and impacted him “professionally and personally”.
Dr McKenna stated during his interview that whistleblowing is a “failsafe to ensure patient safety”. However, when asked whether he would do so again given the response received when he blew the whistle, Dr McKenna said that he “doesn’t know”, but his challenge is to the Minister and everyone else working in senior management that this is a “cultural problem” and it is “within your gift to change this and fix it”. Dr McKenna emphasised that “being open and transparent” is one of the core values of the health service.
In response, the Public Health Agency “strongly refutes” any suggestion that concerns have been handled in anything other than a “professional, comprehensive and collegiate manner”.
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