§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to encourage local trust management to establish an open culture for reporting and examining clinical incidents. [140008]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonThe Government established the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) to improve the safety of patients by promoting a culture of reporting and learning from clinical incidents in the National Health Service. The NPSA has developed a new National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) to collect reports, which will be rolled out across NHS organisations in England and Wales. The NRLS will store anonymous data used to identify national trends and patterns of errors and system failures so that the NPSA can develop practical solutions to address them.
The NPSA is working on a range of tools and has appointed a regional network of 31 patient safety managers to support NHS managers in developing a more open and fair culture and in responding effectively when things go wrong locally. As the NRLS is rolled out, the NPSA will offer root-cause analysis training to 1388W every NHS organisation to encourage thorough and objective investigations and support local learning. Further information is available at www.npsa.nhs.uk.
The recently published Chief Medical Officer's (CMO) report, 'Making Amends', makes 19 recommendations to reform the way in which clinical negligence claims are handled in the NHS. The CMC's proposals include the introduction of a duty of candour for everyone working in health care, and measures to encourage staff to report adverse incidents and so improve patient safety.