There are currently around 6,000 signatures for the petition below.

This is from the RCN website - and I'm happy to reproduce it here.

Dear Colleagues,

Last week, many of you will have seen extensive media coverage around RCN member Margaret Haywood who was removed from the nursing register for breaking patient confidentiality. Margaret took part in undercover filming as part of a BBC Panorama documentary in 2005 which exposed poor care at the Trust she worked at.

Margaret has been supported by the RCN since charges were brought in relation to her participation in the Panorama programme. Whilst the RCN cannot condone breaking patient confidentiality, we feel that the decision taken by the NMC to remove Margaret from the nursing register was unduly harsh.

The RCN would always encourage members to raise any concerns they may have about patient care with their employer in the first instance. However, if members do not feel able to do this for any reason then they should contact the RCN as a matter of urgency and we will take action on their behalf.

In consultation with Margaret, I am currently working with the RCN's Director of Legal Services, Chris Cox, and Margaret's barrister to look at the legal options around the NMC's decision. Although we are not able to make public the detail of these discussions at this stage, we are investigating what grounds there may be for an appeal. If an appeal does go ahead it will have to be lodged within 28 days of the NMC's decision to remove Margaret from the register.

In order to gauge the feeling around Margaret's removal from the register, the RCN has set up an online petition. This is open to anyone that would like to show their support for Margaret. Due to the fact that the petition is aimed at gathering views from the general public and the nursing profession, I don't feel that it would be appropriate for RCN staff members, myself included, to sign the petition. However, please be reassured that the RCN is vigorously defending Margaret and supporting her at this time.

The petition can be found at: www.gopetition.com/online/27030.html.

Yours sincerely

Peter Carter

Chief Executive & General Secretary

As some of you may know, as well as being ambulance staff, I'm also a registered nurse. For that privilege I pay the NMC a sum of money every year to be on the professional register. If I am not on that register then I cannot practice as a nurse.

Should I ever have to leave the ambulance service nursing would allow me to pay the rent.

The NMC have the power to strike me off the register, meaning that I would no longer be able to work as a nurse.

Which is why this blog should come to an end.

No longer can I be safe to tell you all about the terrible conditions in some of the nursing homes that I go to. I can't tell you about the problems that occur in A&E and I can't shout about the atrocious state of home/social care.

It's just not safe because to whistleblow like this can result in you being struck off the register.

What this decision means is that all bloggers that have a professional registration are now skating on thin ice. Nurse bloggers, Doctor bloggers, Paramedic bloggers - all these are on a professional register and all end up writing about situations that trusts would rather were kept under the carpet.

Might I also suggest that in the cases of hospital trusts wanting to get rid of a 'troublesome' staff member they may well turn to organisations like the NMC, HPC or GMC to do their work for them. I know I could point you to HPC rulings that appear to do that, not evidential to be sure, but it does look very much like that.

One further suggestion that I'd like to make is that you don't see many managers being taken to the professional registers for malpractice. Are any trust managers from Stafford hospital being struck off any professional register that they might be on?

What I can say with certainty is that, as a nurse, no matter how many Incident Reporting Forms you fill in, nothing seems to change. You end up not filling them in at all, because you know that they will be ignored.

So you want to shout about the situation as loudly as you can. Which can lead to you losing your job or being struck off the register - which results in your career ending.

Which is why most people just try to o the best they can, and avoid 'rocking the boat'.

And this is why I should stop blogging.

But I won't. I, and many others who are braver than me, will continue to try and get the truth of the situation in the NHS out there, out in the public eye because that is the only way that change occurs.

It's the right thing to do.