Rupert Lowe has sparked fresh controversy after confronting senior NHS officials during a committee session, claiming that hundreds of whistleblowers have raised serious concerns about patient safety linked to poor English language skills and questionable qualifications among some foreign staff working in the health service.
Speaking during the session, Rupert Lowe said good decisions can only be made with good data, arguing that this principle is how he has always run his own businesses. After the NHS permanent secretary agreed with that view, Lowe pressed further, saying he had received “literally hundreds” of reports from NHS doctors, nurses, midwives, managers and surgeons through a whistleblowing line connected to an organisation he supports.
According to Lowe, these whistleblowers claim that language barriers and a lack of appropriate skills among some overseas staff are causing real problems on wards. He said many staff are too afraid to raise these issues internally because they fear backlash from what he described as a “woke” culture within the NHS, which he claims discourages open discussion and punishes those who speak out.
Lowe demanded to know what data the NHS holds on any link between foreign nationals and medical malpractice, insisting that the service should not avoid collecting or examining such information out of fear of being labelled racist. He said taxpayers and patients deserve transparency and “raw data” so that risks can be properly understood and addressed.
In response, a senior NHS medical representative rejected the idea that current evidence supports Lowe’s claims. While stressing the importance of communication in patient safety, he said detailed reviews of thousands of deaths and severe harm cases each year have not revealed a pattern linking overseas staff, language issues, or foreign training to the kinds of problems Lowe described.
The NHS official acknowledged that communication failures do contribute to inequalities in harm, with some patient groups more affected than others, but said these issues are broader and not specific to staff who trained abroad. He added that new digital tools and machine learning systems are being developed to analyse millions of safety reports more effectively in the future.
He also pushed back against the suggestion that whistleblowers are being ignored, saying the NHS is focused on creating “psychological safety” so staff feel able to speak up without fear. He stressed that concerns raised through proper channels are taken seriously, even if he personally has not spoken to the individuals Lowe referenced.
The exchange has intensified debate online and in political circles, with supporters saying Lowe is asking difficult but necessary questions about patient safety, while critics argue his language risks stoking division and undermining an NHS that relies heavily on overseas workers to function.
