NHS Whistleblowing. Shelagh Fogarty talks to Sharmila Chowdhury, an NHS Whistleblower. Before the interview, Shelagh Fogarty asks … why is it that NHS whistleblowers are not praised and their actions championed? Instead they are treated as troublemakers, denigrated and usually end up losing their livelihoods. We think we know the answer to this question. It is because there has to be a DETERRENT to whistleblowing and this DETERRENT and the treatment visited upon whistleblowers has to be seen to be working on a wide scale and preferably in all the newspapers, as widely as possible… why? Because it sends out the very clear message to othere NHS workers, or any workers… “THIS is what happens to you if you DARE to speak up about abuse or patient harm or financial failures, theft, fraud or any other behaviour that may be criminal or verging upon it.”