Leading article: The right medicine
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From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
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Your support makes all the difference.It takes a particular kind of courage to be a whistleblower. Those who take such drastic action risk ostracism, disciplinary action, and, in extremis, dismissal. Dismissal is what Margaret Haywood, the nurse who covertly filmed the scandalous neglect of elderly patients at the Royal Sussex Hospital, received. She was struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for breaching the confidentiality of her patients.
Now that sanction has been reversed after a court challenge. But the NMC ruling that Ms Haywood behaved badly still stands. That is not good enough. Ms Haywood was doing a true service to her patients by bringing the appalling manner in which they were being treated to public attention.
It is good news that Ms Haywood can return to work. But the deplorable impression lingers that the profession to which this brave woman belongs is more interested in keeping its members in line than in protecting patients.
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