13.12.16
Trusts to collect patient death figures from 2017 as Hunt accepts full CQC findings
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced a range of new responsibilities for NHS trusts to monitor avoidable patient deaths following yesterday’s damning CQC report.
In a statement before Parliament this morning, Hunt said he fully accepted the recommendations of the CQC review, which he had ordered as part of the response to the death of 18-year-old Connor Sparrowhawk at the troubled Southern Health trust.
The CQC found that not a single trust is consistently investigating the deaths of patients with learning disabilities and mental health problems, and families are being excluded from investigations.
The secretary of state told MPs: “The culture of the NHS is changing following a number of tragedies. But this report shows there is much progress to be made in the collecting of information about unexpected deaths, analysis of what was preventable and learning from the results.
“Only by implementing its recommendations in full will we honour the memory of Connor Sparrowhawk.”
From 31 March, all NHS trust boards will be required to collect specified information, including estimates of how many patient deaths could have been prevented.
These figures will then be published on a quarterly basis, along with evidence of learning and action as a consequence, and fed back to NHS Improvement to be distributed to the NHS as a whole.
All trusts will also have to identify a board-level leader, most likely a medical director, to act as patient safety director and take responsibility for ensuring this agenda is given priority and resources. They will appoint a non-executive director to take oversight of progress.
Following the report’s call for a standardised national approach to learning from deaths, Hunt said he has asked the NHS National Quality Board to draw up guidance, in consultation with Keith Conradi, the new chief investigator of healthcare safety. This guidance will be published by the end of March and implemented by all trusts in April.
In addition, Health Education England will review the training for doctors and nurses in engaging with patients’ families after a death.
Hunt also committed to asking acute trusts to identify patients with learning disabilities and mental health problems, make sure that their care responds to their needs, and avoid wrong assumptions “about the inevitability of death”.
He promised that the NHS would review and learn from all deaths of people with learning disabilities, in all settings.
Earlier this year, Hunt promised that all deaths will be subject to independent medical review from 2018 as part of a range of measures to improve patient safety.
(Image c. Neil Hall from PA Wire)
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