The NHS will become more transparent under proposals set out by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.
The new ‘Duty of Candour’ consultation will form part of the Government’s plans to modernise the NHS by making it more accountable and transparent and giving patients and local clinicians more power to hold the NHS to account. This was also signalled in the Government’s response to the independent Future Forum in June 2011.
The contractual Duty of Candour in healthcare will be an enforceable duty on providers to be open and honest with patients or their families when things go wrong ensuring they receive information about any investigations and encouraging the NHS to learn lessons.
Being open with patients when something goes wrong is a key component of developing a safety culture; a culture where all incidents are reported, discussed, investigated and learned from.
The consultation proposes to contractually require providers of NHS funded care to be open according to the principles of the ‘Being Open’ policy published by the National Patient Safety Agency.
To avoid unnecessary bureaucracy, we propose that enforcement of the requirement to be open is limited to those incidents involving moderate and severe harm or death (around 70-80,000 per year).
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said:
‘We must develop a culture of openness in the NHS. This is a key part of how a modern NHS should be – open and accountable to the public and patients to drive improvements in care.
‘That’s why we are introducing a requirement on providers to be transparent in admitting mistakes. We need to find the most effective way to promote openness and hold those organisations who are not open to account.
‘A more transparent NHS is a safer NHS where patients can be confident of receiving high quality care.’
The consultation runs until 2 January 2012.
For more information go to http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Liveconsultations/DH_130400