I would recommend anyone interested in the future of our health service to read the special report on NHS whistleblowers in the current issue of Private Eye.

As a city councillor, I saw evidence of how difficult it can be to blow the whistle on bad practice and how this can impact on the performance or quality of service offered by a large organisation.

Senior officers understood the need for an environment where individuals felt they could raise issues of concern. But it is not an easy thing to put into practice.

It is clear from the Private Eye report that, despite numerous attempts to address the issue, the NHS is still failing to provide the “open and non-punitive environment in the NHS in which it is safe to report and to admit to ‘near misses’ and patient harm”, as called for in the Bristol Inquiry that estimated that 25,000 patients a year die in the NHS in England and Wales “from adverse effects that may be preventable from the exercise of ordinary standards of care”.

Gagging orders and injunctions, to prevent disclosure of information, are not restricted to celebrities. Most of us are shocked that public money is spent by hospital trusts to prevent doctors, nurses, surgeons and consultants from drawing attention to failings in the NHS.

Whistleblowers are not always right, but an organisation that refuses to tolerate criticism, or concerns raised internally, cannot function properly.

Christian Vassie, Blake Court, Wheldrake, York.