Our response to the Health Select Committee’s ‘After Francis’ report
The health service needs to develop a genuine culture of openness and honesty to help prevent unacceptable failures like those at Mid-Staffs from ever happening again.
Responding to the Health Select Committee’s ‘After Francis’ report, that looks at the recommendations of Francis report, Dr Katherine Rake OBE, Chief Executive of Healthwatch England, said:
"We agree wholeheartedly with the Select Committee that the health service needs to develop a genuine culture of openness and honesty to help prevent unacceptable failures like those at Mid-Staffs from ever happening again.
“Many institutions still have a long way to go in terms of getting the basics right and need to both improve their complaints systems for patients and end the use of gagging clauses for staff. Hospitals, GPs and care providers also need to be having frank discussions with patients and the public as part of a routine evaluation of treatment and care to ensure that feedback is helping to improve services before we reach crisis situations.
“The Berwick review, the Keogh report, the Francis review itself and now the Health Select Committee have all outlined the importance of listening to the patient voice but we need to make sure that the system puts this rhetoric into action.”
