Dr Rita Pal is an independent medical journalist based in the UK. Between 1999-2007, she worked as a psychiatrist in the National Health Service UK. She has written for a number of publications around the world and is editor of World Medical Times.
Dr Pal is also a well established, evidence-based NHS whistleblower. Details of this can be found in the articles Elderly Helped to Die and a summary of Ward 87 North Staffordshire NHS Trust . She has also summarised her experiences in a short narrative available on Amazon – The North Staffordshire Whistleblower – and was second author in the leading research paper Whistleblowing and Patient Safety, published by the JRSM.

Dr Pal was the first whistleblower to raise concerns in the Midlands hospitals run by the same local health authority. The Mid Staffordshire Inquiry demonstrated many of the problems that she raised with the Department of Health in 1999/2000. Her concerns were ignored, with the net result that many patients died needlessly. For reasons known only to themselves, the mainstream media have been reluctant to feature these issues, although Dr Pal is grateful to the Guardian for this feature.

She was the first doctor to successfully conduct civil litigation under the Human Rights Act, the Data Protection Act and in Defamation against the General Medical Council UK. The judgments can be found here. The General Medical Council has since apologised for the distress caused.