The secretary of state for health, Jeremy Hunt, will today make a speech on patient safety and the need for a change in culture to support staff to ensure patient safety is core to all the NHS does. Commenting on the speech, Sir Richard Thompson, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said:
The health secretary is right to focus on creating a supportive and transparent culture in the NHS. Robert Francis called for a fundamental culture change in NHS so that patients are the first priority of all that the NHS does. The RCP believes that more and better clinical leadership will help to develop and facilitate this. All doctors are clinical leaders; from day one on the ward they take responsibility for patient care and make decisions that affect others, so that leadership is a fundamental part of doctor’s professionalism.
One of the RCP’s key recommendations to the Francis Inquiry was that every patient should have a named consultant responsible for their care. We welcome this call from the Health Secretary, and also we believe it will help to improve patient experience of healthcare.
The RCP believes that publishing accurate, team based information about services will facilitate patient choice and raise standards. The RCP’s audits have already led to quality improvement for many patients. Thus the RCP’s stroke audit informed the redesign of stroke services in London, which has driven up standards.
For further information, please contact Linda Cuthbertson, head of PR, on +44 (0)203 075 1254 / 0774 877 7919, or email Linda.Cuthbertson@rcplondon.ac.uk
- The RCP was a core participant to the Francis Inquiry and will publish its full response to the Inquiry’s final report in September. Read the RCP's initial response to the Inquiry and the RCP’s evidence to the Inquiry.
- The RCP will be publishing the report of its groundbreaking Future Hospital Commission in September 2013, which will review medical inpatient care.