Novum Law recognised in prestigious Chambers & Partners Guide 2024
The team at Novum Law are delighted to be once again recognised as one of the best personal injury law firms in the South West by the leading, independent legal...
The Care Quality Commission Report “Learning, Candour and Accountability”. Hannah Carr looks at the findings of today’s Care Quality Commission (CQC) Report and what this means for patients and patient safety.
Last year, a major NHS inquiry found that hospitals are failing to investigate far too many deaths and frequently ignore the concerns of bereaved relatives. A year later the Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out its own review.
This review looked at the processes and systems hospital trusts use to identify, investigate and learn from the deaths of people in NHS care. Of the 495,309 deaths registered in England last year, 47% of those people died in hospital, with even more dying while receiving services provided by NHS trusts as an outpatient or from community services provided by the trust.
It found, amongst other issues, that families and carers often have a poor experience of investigations and “are not always treated with kindness, respect and sensitivity”. Further, that there were inconsistencies in the way organisations become aware of deaths of people in their care across the NHS, with no clear systems in place to govern how service providers identify a death and then inform commissioners or other providers involved in the person’s care.
Whilst healthcare staff understand the expectation to report patient safety incidents, it appears from the CQC review, that investigations will only commence if the care provided to the patient has led to a serious incident being reported. Due to variation in the criterion for deciding to report the incident across the various trusts, this has led to limitations in the ability to monitor, audit or regulate decision making processes in relation to reviewing deaths.
According to the CQC the ‘system-wide problem’ means that hospitals are not learning from their mistakes. The CQC goes on to explain that “learning from deaths needs to be a much greater priority for all working within health and social care. Without significant change at local and national levels, opportunities to improve care for future patients will continue to be missed”.
With this in mind the CQC has identified the need for improvement in the following areas:
Hannah Carr, associate solicitor at Novum Law, said in a response to the review:
“In an already overstretched NHS the time and effort required to investigate, report and learn from deaths places a considerable burden on all stakeholders involved. However, patient safety is paramount and so it is vital that learning from deaths within a consistent framework needs to be given priority. Learning from past experiences is vital for building a better and safer future for our health service.”
The full report can be found here
To use this Chat, first you need to accept our Cookie Policy; we use analytics and third-party cookies to give you the best possible experience on our website.
Are you happy to give your consent?
Search site
Contact our office
Make an enquiry