TWO LETTERS HAVE BEEN PRINTED IN THE INDEPENDENT, FOLLOWING MARK STEEL’S RECENT COLUMN. YOU CAN READ THEM HERE, OR BELOW.
Sacked nurse is one of the NHS’s finest
Sir: Thank you for Mark Steel’s excellent article about the sacking of Karen Reissmann (14 November).
It is time that this disgraceful affair was brought to the attention of the British people.
The “surreal charges” that Karen was found guilty of might almost be humorous if it wasn’t for the fact that a truly excellent nurse is now without a job.
The real reason for her dismissal was that she had the audacity to speak out about creeping privatisation and the decimation of community mental-health services.
I have worked with Karen for more than 25 years in this Trust and can vouch for the fact that you would not find a more caring, knowledgeable, professional and dedicated nurse anywhere in the NHS.
Karen should be receiving national recognition for her service to the NHS, not her P45.
Chris Peters
Manchester
Sir: While Mark Steel’s article concerning the dismissal of Karen Reissmann exposes most of the insanity (I use the word intentionally) of the way she has been treated it does miss another major point.
Karen received a letter informing her of her promotion. Later that day she was taken out of a meeting with a patient to be informed that she had been suspended for bringing the trust into disrepute.
The support for Karen is not confined to her own union or branch. It comes from her patients, service users, health-care professionals, and other trade unionists across the cities of Manchester and Salford.
I suspect that as the facts of this case become more widely known there will be only one viable charge of bringing the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust into disrepute, and that will be against the Trust and its director.
Pete Grubb
Public and Commercial Services Union, Oldham
