Whistleblowing poems

In 2006, Lotte worked as a medical physicist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Among other things, it is the responsibility of the medical physicists to ensure the dosimetric accuracy of the linear accelerators which deliver radiation therapy. Lotte and a colleague discovered a calibration error which had underdosed 900 patients by 5%. They were told to keep quiet about it. It appeared neither the patients nor their doctors were informed. Lotte was subjected to workplace bullying which it took her two years to recover from. When she was finally able to, she became a whistleblower by disclosing the underdosing to the South Australian Health Department, asking them to inform the patients' doctors. The Health Department went public. Media coverage of it can be found here and here and here. The article she wrote about the whistleblowing experience is available here. On this page are some of the poems written about the whistleblowing experience.

Desertion is about the reaction of the people around me in my workplace to the bullying. With few exceptions, seing the way I was treated, my colleagues avoided me. I could go a whole day at work without speaking to anyone. I felt deserted.

Two colleagues kept in touch. "She's got what it takes" is about one of them. She is one special lady.

"The letter" is about the letter with which I became a whistleblower. Having tried to alert the doctors to the patient underdose several times, unsuccessfully, I wrote a letter to the South Australia Health Department, disclosing the error and asking them to inform the doctors.

Whistleblower is about how I feel about the experience, now that it's over. I am a stronger person. And sure I did the right thing. Wouldn't you?