A NEW charter to help protect NHS whistleblowers has been published by hospital managers.

Following the scandal involving shamed surgeon David Baumber, Bury Health Care NHS Trust, will be distributing each member of staff with a copy of the new charter.

Earlier this year the Government published rules to help NHS staff who bring to light cases of negligence or other causes of concern.

Now the trust, responsible for running local hospitals, has incorporated the government guidelines with its own rule in the charter.

Mr Phillip Bacon, trust chief executive, stressed that the trust wanted to promote an open environment in hospitals and that the management had learnt lessons from the Baumber case.

Nurses first raised concerns about the surgeon following the deaths of Bury residents 41-year-old Paul Blaine and 68-year-old Irene Roby in April last year. Both patients had stomach surgery and later died at Bury General Hospital. Although the nurses highlighted the problem they had no formal procedure to follow.

Surgeon David Baumber - who died of cancer in 1998 aged 56 - was at the centre of a massive hospital inquiry after four patients died in his care and 51 women were recalled for emergency breast screening.

The independent review conducted by external experts outside the North West examined more than 800 of the surgeon's cases dating back to 1991.

A damning report published by the trust earlier this year found that Mr Baumber gave inadequate care, misdiagnosed patients, delayed diagnosis and treatment and failed to find cancer lumps.

Under the new rules the hospital will have to appoint a senior manager to listen to whistleblowers. Managers have promised to take concerns raised by staff seriously and investigate them thoroughly. And all staff will be given an unequivocal guarantee that anyone who has concerns will be protected against victimisation.

Mr Bacon said: "We took action as soon as concerns were raised about Mr Baumber. We want an open culture in the trust in this is the first step towards that."

He added: "We want all staff to feel they can approach us and we will keep on going to achieve that aim."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.