Doctors and nurses are being ordered to own up to their mistakes and to say sorry to patients and families. The joint guidelines from the General Medical Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council instruct staff to report an error immediately to prevent a repeat. Figures show as many as a fifth of all hospital trusts are under-recording mistakes and near-misses – some of which have fatal consequences. They include ‘never’ events such as the wrong organs being removed, swabs left inside patients or overdoses of drugs. Today Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will highlight the importance of honesty in a speech at St Thomas’ hospital in London. He will underline how such mistakes cause ‘immeasurable harm’, and call upon the NHS to drastically improve its safety record. The guidelines urge staff to report errors or near misses to managers immediately, then inform patients and properly apologise, and accept ‘personal responsibility’. Next, they must tell patients how the mistake will be remedied. For example, if a swab has been left inside a patient following an operation they will need further surgery to remove it. Hospitals are meant to record mistakes and near misses to an agency known as the NHS’s National Reporting and Learning System. But an analysis by Department of Health in June identified that 29 of 130 the hospital trusts in England were under-reporting these incidents – a fifth of the total. Separate figures show that last year there were 312 never events across the NHS – six every week. They include 123 patients who had swaps, scalpels or other objects were left inside them after surgery and another 89 cases where doctors operated on the wrong bit of the body. A further 49 patients were fitted with the wrong implant or prosthetic limb and there were 14 cases where feeding tubes were inserted into the lungs, rather than the stomach, which is life-threatening. Jeremy Hunt said: ‘Transparency and honesty when things go wrong are powerful tools to improve patient safety, and part of the continued culture change we are determined to see in the NHS. ‘These new guidelines will complement the statutory duty of candour on organisations and help make the NHS safer than ever before.’ The extent of secrecy and cover-ups within the NHS was highlighted in a damning report in 2012 into the Mid Staffordshire scandal, where hundreds died due to poor care. Its author, Robert Francis QC, warned that a culture of fear existed in many hospitals preventing staff from admitting mistakes or raising concerns. Niall Dickson, chief executive of the GMC said: ‘Patients deserve a clear and honest explanation if something has gone wrong with their care. ‘This is why, for the first time, we are collaborating on this new joint guidance. It will ensure that doctors, nurses and midwives are working to a common standard and will know exactly what their responsibilities are. source
