Doctor nearly quit over work culture at Birmingham NHS trust

A junior doctor said he felt so overworked and isolated working for one of England's largest NHS trusts he nearly quit his job.

Dr Chris Stillman said he did not feel he was treated as a human being by University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB).

Repeated cases of bullying and a toxic environment at the trust were revealed in the Bewick report which was published this month.

The trust said it recognised it had some significant issues to address.

When he was working at the Queen Elizabeth (QE) hospital, Dr Stillman said he felt "more like a number on a spreadsheet".

"There's definitely a feeling that when you are being moved around, there's not really an appreciation that you are a human being," he told BBC Midlands Today.

Junior doctor Vaish Kumar died in June 2022

The Bewick report was ordered after a BBC Newsnight investigation into UHB found concerns among current and ex-staff.

It also examined how leadership reacted to the death of Dr Vaish Kumar, 35, a junior doctor at the QE Hospital who left a suicide note blaming her death entirely on the place where she worked.

While he did not know Dr Kumar, Dr Stillman said when he read about her death and the difficulties she faced, it made him consider his future in medicine.

"I just found that very heart-breaking, I found that very difficult and that was the point where I wondered if this was really the career for me," he said.

"I'm very glad I stuck with it and in hindsight that was definitely a low point, it gets tough."

Three main concerns were found by the review at the trust, which runs the Queen Elizabeth Hospital

Dr Stillman moved to work at Birmingham Children's Hospital where he said he felt more appreciated.

"I feel like I know everyone at the hospital very well. Because it's a lot smaller, I do feel more like a person," he said.

The report by Prof Bewick highlighted three main concerns, which included levels of staffing, and made four recommendations to improve clinical safety, governance and leadership, staff welfare and culture.

The organisation has to make "substantive changes" from the top down, said Dr Stillman, who is also a representative for the British Medical Association.

The trust accepted the findings of the report and has already begun to address issues, its chief executive Jonathan Brotherton said.

Prof Bewick's report, which marks the first phase of his investigation, is one of three major reviews into the trust, commissioned following a series of reports by Newsnight and BBC West Midlands in which current and former staff raised concerns.

The second and third reviews, covering governance and culture at the trust, are expected to be published by June.

'Significant issues'

A spokesperson for University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust said there were a number of concerns the trust needed to address.

"We recognise that while doctors in training nationally are unhappy, we have some very significant issues at UHB that we must address.

"We want to develop a positive, inclusive work environment where people want to come to work, in a place that they are proud to work in, to do their very best for our patients. We need to do this as quickly as possible, for the benefit of patients and staff; we remain committed to ensuring this happens."

The trust had also learnt lessons from its response to Dr Kumar's death and is acting on them, it said, and added it wanted to see an improvement to support offered to trainee doctors and to see a change in the culture at the hospital trust.

Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [e-mail]