THE NHS in Dorset has paid out more than £1 million in six years to people who signed non-disclosure agreements, the Daily Echo can reveal.

A quarter of this money – more than £250,000 - was paid out by one trust alone.

In total the hospital trusts in Bournemouth and Poole and the South Western Ambulance Service paid out a total of £1,134,176 to people required to sign NDAs - legal agreements between two parties not to share confidential information or to keep trade or business secrets confidential.

Whilst NDAs are not to be confused with the 'gagging orders' handed out by courts and are perfectly legal, they have controversially been used in some instances to prevent whistleblowers from speaking out about alleged wrongdoing or bad practise and are sometimes used in settling employment disputes. However, the Daily Echo is unable to say whether that is the case with any of the agreements obtained by the institutions it spoke to.

Poole Hospital admitted it had paid out a total of £250,299.67 collectively to 10 people required to sign NDAs in the five years leading up to November 2017. In the 12 months after that it paid out £6,250 to parties required to sign one.

The Echo asked if those who signed NDAs were specifically informed that signing them did not prevent the signatory from whistleblowing about issues which had concerned them within the service and the hospital said there was a ‘Clause contained in agreement’.

Royal Bournemouth Hospital admitted it had paid out more than £140,000 in the past six years, including £10,000 to one person required to sign NDAs.

It said the clause specifically informing signatories that it did not prevent them from whistleblowing is within the agreement, and a contribution is made by Trust to enable individuals to take legal advice.

South Western Ambulance Service said it had seven documented cases within the inquiry time limit and had paid out £80,267 to signatories.

The Echo also asked Dorset Police for its figures.

Whilst admitting it did hold some information ‘falling within the description specified in the request’ it said it had estimated that to locate, retrieve and extract the specific information was likely to take longer than 18 hours and therefore it did not have to legally respond.