New guidelines issued by the General Medical Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council are advising doctors, nurses and midwives in the UK to be open and honest with patients should things go wrong.
The new rules, known as a “duty of candour”, state that the individual doctor, nurse or midwife responsible for the mistake should apologise to the patient directly.
Guidance was previously introduced on an organisational level back in April, requiring all NHS and private healthcare organisations to admit when they have made a mistake and apologise to the patient candidly. Now, these rules are being extended to individual medics, too.
The BBC reports that the guidelines will apply to more than 950,000 doctors, nurses and midwives working in the UK and make clear that patients or their families should expect a face-to-face apology. They need explain what the mistake might mean for the patient’s health, admitting to their error as soon as reasonably possible.
So what do these new guidelines mean going forwards? With a more open and honest culture in NHS and private healthcare organisations, it will be clear precisely where the negligence has occurred, on an individual rather than organisational level. This, in turn, could potentially reduce cases of medical negligence going forwards.
Fiona Tinsley, Clinical Negligence Solicitor at Russell Worth, said: “We are fully behind these new rules and hope that over time they will reduce the many cases of medical negligence occurring on a daily basis, as a result of increased visibility when things sadly do go wrong.”
Jackie Smith, chief executive of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, told the BBC: “[Nurses, midwives and doctors] often work as part of a team and that should absolutely be our approach as regulators to ensure we are protecting the public.
“We believe that the public’s health is best protected when the healthcare professionals who look after them work in an environment that openly supports them to speak to patients or those who care for them, when things have gone wrong.”
Chief executive of the General Medical Council, Niall Dickson, added: “None of this will work without an open and honest learning culture, in which staff feel empowered to admit mistakes and raise concerns.”
It is hoped that this more open and honest culture that we strive to achieve will ultimately create a safer medical landscape where errors are addressed openly and efficiently, to prevent the same mistake from happening again. If you or your loved one has suffered medical negligence, we can help you. Contact Fiona and team on 0800 028 2060 or contact us online here.