Doctors and nurses are being trained to monitor terminally ill people and dementia patients and their visitors for signs of radicalisation as part of the government’s Prevent scheme, the Guardian has learned.
A senior NHS whistleblower who works on the programme said that its operations in the health system were so indiscriminate that she had carried out the training in hospices and said that she knew of other trainers who had operated in dementia wards.
“I have personally delivered this training in a hospice,” the whistleblower said. “The training requires staff to monitor and judge the thoughts and actions of a specific group of people and even refer them to the police without their knowledge.”
Criticising Prevent’s operation in the NHS more broadly, she said: “Patients who don’t trust their doctor or nurse may not seek advice from them, which could be potentially life threatening. Prevent moves people’s focus away from care, treatment and support into areas that are police business: counter-terrorism and surveillance.”
The revelations prompted criticisms from Labour that deradicalisation programmes had no place monitoring the terminally ill.
Hospice and dementia services have been caught under a blanket application of Prevent across the NHS. The disclosures will raise fresh questions over the credibility of the programme, which is designed to identify individuals who hold radical views before they commit a crime. It imposes a duty on public bodies to report any concerns that people with whom they come into contact could be drawn into terrorism.
As part of its attempt to ensure that Prevent is in place across the health service the Home Office hired comedian Isy Suttie and TV doctor Phil Hammond to front a training video shown to more than a million NHS staff. But critics view the programme as heavy-handed and counter-productive, with fears that the Prevent brand has become toxic among many British Muslims.
The Home Office rejected the claim that the programme was damaging relationships between clinicians and patients.
The revelation followed the April visit of the UN’s special rapporteur on racism, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination, Tendayi Achiume, to the UK. Achiume condemned the programme strongly, calling on the government to “at the very least suspend the Prevent duty, and implement a comprehensive audit of its impact on racial equality and on the political, social and economic exclusion of racial and ethnic minorities, especially within Muslim communities.”
“It is disappointing to see this statement make a series of assertions that are not based on the reality of Prevent on the ground,” a Home Office spokeswoman said.
The whistleblower accused the Home Office of hijacking the term “safeguarding” and redefining it in the context of Prevent. Safeguarding duties only apply to adults deemed vulnerable, with care and support needs, who are experiencing, or are at risk of, abuse or neglect and are unable to protect themselves against such treatment.
“Local authorities will dismiss a safeguarding concern if the individual does not meet those criteria,” the whistleblower said.
“What is happening here is ‘thought police’; concerns are usually raised about people who have made comments about ongoing politics such as overseas wars.
“This is a system that is designed and run by the Home Office, which oversees it and to which organisations are accountable. My belief is that the Home Office has no place being involved in day-to-day NHS work, or indeed education. In essence, this is ‘soft’ surveillance.”
The whistleblower questioned what happens to information about the 95% of people referred to Prevent who don’t go on to be referred to the government’s Channel counter-terrorism programme.
“I have never, ever had a concern raised to me about a white, non-Muslim or far-right person,” said the whistleblower. “Concerns have only ever been raised about Muslims. This is a shockingly bad and damaging piece of legislation and in my view it has no place in an advanced democratic country.”
Security minister Ben Wallace condemned the whistleblower and said: “These accusations are inaccurate and a misrepresentation of the Prevent programme. Prevent is fundamentally about safeguarding and supporting vulnerable individuals to stop them from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism in a similar way to safeguarding processes designed to protect people from gangs, drug abuse, and physical and sexual abuse.
“Health professionals have always had an important role to play in safeguarding and we have supported the rollout of the Prevent Duty with guidance and a dedicated package of training. Prevent training has now been completed over a million times, meaning staff now recognise the signs of radicalisation and what they should do if they have concerns.”
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott attacked the use of Prevent in hospices and dementia wards. “The public will not understand what business a counter-terror programme has monitoring dementia patients or people dying in a hospice,” she said. “Ministers wax lyrical about how Prevent is focused on a need for ‘safeguarding’.
“If the government has finally realised woeful inadequacies in social work and social care provisions, they need look no further than their own scathing cuts. The Prevent strategy is losing credibility and is not making the public any safer. It urgently needs a fundamental rethink and a complete review.”
Spies, spies, and more spies.
“….in my view it has no place in an advanced democratic country…..”
You’re right, but like the U.S.A., England is no longer a democratic country, although the illusion of democracy is kept alive to keep people quiet.
Welcome to communism, where everyone is encouraged, and even coerced into spying on their neighbor. Watch for your neighbors who might have a gambling problem, or be buried in debt they can’t pay for other reasons, because the commie bastards will look to recruit them as local spies.
Democracy is illegal in the US. Just because you elect a particular person to a public office doesn’t mean you have a”democratic”.. government.we are to stand up for our bill of Rights, lest some tyrant stir the people, in an attempt to vote them out of existence….. Be ready always to do right by your neighbor, keeping one eye on the enemy at all times…..
I knew someone was gong to point that out, so let me explain myself better, because this is just a matter of semantics:
Yes, the United States’ form of government is a Republic, and not a democracy….but…. because we vote, and are supposed to have a representative government, we can be said to live in a democratic society, or have a democratic form of government, even though calling it a “democracy” is a mistake.
It is not a democratic society or a democratic form of government. It is the Bill of Rights, common law, with individuals prosecuting their lives. The only place democracy comes into play, is in deciding who will work for us in the contract which is apart and separate from we the people in our private lives.
The democratic aspect/servant government plays no part in our governess within the continental boundaries of the united States. The democratic process aspect can only operate in the 10 mile square citadel and beyond our borders, not inside the united States.
As for the so called state governments, the state buildings are little mini-citadels, which operate in conjunction with the federal citadel to carry the state authority to where the tide ebbs and flows. The state authority, like the federal authority has zero authority over the people in their private lives, as only individual free sovereigns can operate within the common law.
The problem most people have is in understanding that the people are the absolute authority and that the so called governments are the people’s proxy in areas where the individual may want to assert authority on foreign estates, as in sovereign border disputes.
Our founders gave these piss ants very little authority to operate on without a direct charge from the people via signed grievance. They have seized all power and are operating illegitimately as rogues, which we must put down.
This is a new low. To exploit the dying and give further stress to the loved ones who are grieving in the process of saying good-bye. Oh to reclaim the days when we died at home with family lovingly gathered around.
They have been destroying tradition, family, community, for many decades now. Every day, more blatant, more oppressive. I know some folks have no other choice but hospice; how sad that they can’t die without Big Brother and all his a**holes attending and meddling. Death to the police state.
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