Title of driver: The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry
Source: Chaired by Robert Francis QC
Publication format: Web page with links to each volume
Date of publication: February 2013
Summary of driver:
The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry was launched in 2010 and was a full public inquiry into the role of the commissioning, supervisory and regulatory bodies in the monitoring of Mid Staffordshire Foundation NHS Trust. It builds on the Independent Inquiry into care provided by Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust January 2005 to March 2009, and provided a detailed analysis of what contributed to serious failures in care.
It concluded that what happened was the result of a system failure, as well as a failure of the organisation and called for a fundamental change in culture across the NHS.
In February 2014, NHS England published a progress report called ‘The Francis Report: One Year On‘ detailing some of the changes that have taken place as a results of the public enquiry.
- Launching the Friends and Family Test
- Rolling out a the Compassion in Practice strategy
- Review of the quality of care and treatment provided by 14 hospital trusts that are persistent outliers on mortality indicators
- Network of Patient Safety Collaboratives
- Every Trust in England has been directed to publish actual versus expected nurse, midwifery and care staffing levels and to clearly explain how they have decided on their staffing numbers in each ward and clinical area.
- New National Patient Safety Alerting System (NPSAS)
- Quality Surveillance Groups have been put in place
- Begun publication of outcome data from consultants in 12 surgical specialties
- Plans for a new national safety website
Key features of driver:
- The report contains 290 separate recommendations.
- The Government published a response in November 2013, covering each these, though not all of which were accepted in full
- The Government response addresses 5 thematic areas (‘Compassion and care’, ‘Leadership’, ‘Values and standards’, ‘Information’ and ‘Openness and transparency’)
Primary audience: Policy-makers, managers and leaders, education providers, CCGs, NHS Trusts and professional bodies.
Impact on library policy/practice:
Among the recommendations accepted by the Government are several that could have a direct impact on libraries, including:
- Recommendation 187 is that aspiring nurses have one year’s practical experience as a health care assistant before entering an undergraduate nurse education course and this could have implications for the numbers of health care assistants needing to access library services
- Recommendation 194 suggests that in time nurses will be required to undergo revalidation
- Recommendation 197 that nurses have access to leadership training and this could be a driver to support the development of leadership resources in libraries
Date last updated: June 2014
Due for review: June 2015
Group member responsible: JC
Tagged: Patient safety, Quality and Improvement, Workforce