In light of the recently implemented statutory duty of candour, Dr Mohsin Choudry, the RCP’s national medical director’s clinical fellow and Dr Kevin Stewart, clinical director of the RCP’s Clinical Effectiveness and Evaluation Unit, assess the legal and professional duty of clinicians and how to improve patient safety.
A defining moment in recent medical history was the publication of the United States Institute of Medicine’s 1999 report To err is human which estimated that 44,000–98,000 people died from medical error in hospitals in the United States per annum. This report launched the modern patient safety movement, however 16 years later little has changed. International studies estimate that around 10% of hospital patients still suffer some sort of adverse event. A medical adverse event is widely defined as an unintentional or untoward outcome, resulting in actual or potential physical or psychological harm following medical intervention, treatment or drug administration.