§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent advice he has issued to hospitals on the circumstances in which they must produce an adverse incident report. [128479]
§ Ms StuartIn November 1999, the Minister of State for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Itchen (Mr. Denham), launched a series of standards underpinning the National Health Service Executive's "controls assurance" project. One of the standards outlines a number of key components of an effective system of risk management that all NHS hospitals must subscribe to, including incident reporting. A key criterion contained in the "risk management system" standard requires NHS hospitals to ensure that
Incidents, including ill health, are systematically identified, recorded and reported to management in accordance with an agreed policy of positive, non-punitive reporting.Guidance supporting this criterion elaborates on certain circumstances requiring an adverse incident to be reported, and to whom. Further specific guidance is planned based around a more comprehensive "incident recording and reporting" standard which is currently being developed by the NHS Executive to augment the guidance contained in the Controls Assurance risk management system standard, and to underpin incident reporting requirements forming part of a new national incident reporting system planned in response to the Chief Medical Officer's recently issued report "An Organisation with a Memory".