Health Committee Report highlights shortfalls of NHS complaints procedure

The report points out that, although the NHS in England has contact with around 1 million patients every 36 hours, very few of them are harmed.

However the report acknowledges that in some ‘notorious’ cases of breaches of patient safety deliberate harm was cause – and in other cases, there were failings on the part of an individual healthcare worker, as in the case of heart surgery carried out on babies at Bristol Royal Infirmary in the 1980s and 1990s.

The report says that, despite ‘significant attempts’ to improve patient safety since 2000 – which involved moving away from an individual ‘blame culture’ in the NHS to removing ‘error-provoking aspects of care-delivery systems’ – concerns have been raised by Lord Darzi’s reports on quality and safety in care in 2007 and 2008 that ‘insufficient progress has been made in making NHS services safer’.

Lack of training in how to communicate with patients was highlighted in the report – as well as patients experiencing difficulty in navigating the NHS complaints system. The delay in introducing the NHS Redress Scheme (2006) was also highlighted.

‘Many harmed patients and their families or carers are obliged to bring clinical negligence cases to obtain financial compensation and redress from the NHS and, in some cases, to obtain full information, an explanation and an apology.’

The report concluded that such actions tended to encourage NHS organisations to be ‘defensive towards harmed patients and their families or carers’, while inhibiting the development of a culture of safety in the NHS.

The report urged the government to introduce the NHS Redress Scheme, although welcomed the new NHS Litigation Authority guidance on giving apologies and explanations.

It also called for harmed patients, their families and carers to receive ‘honest information, a full explanation, an unequivocal apology and an undertaking that the harm done will not be repeated’.

© 5r1 Limited, 2009

Free NHS Negligence Claim Advice

If you or a loved one has suffered from medical negligence by the NHS, then contact 5r1 Claims. Our expert panel of medical negligence claims solicitors can provide you free legal advice on making a NHS negligence claim. 5r1 claims will not ask you to pay if your medical negligence claim should fail and no money will be deducted from your medical negligence compensation should you win your medical negligence claim. Contact 5r1 Claims today to discuss your medical negligence claim.

Freephone: 0808 222 0101 (lines open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week)

_____ _____