Safeguarding care standards, dignity and compassion

Thu 31 Jan 2013

MiP statement in advance of next week’s publication of the Francis Inquiry’s report

MiP stands ready to work with other stakeholders to ensure the Francis Report has a lasting and positive impact on quality of care. In our statement we highlight the following points:

• There will be no one quick-fix to the problems unearthed by the Francis Inquiry. Good managers will be part of the solution.
• What we don’t need is more NHS re-organisation. Politicians should assess the risks for quality of excessive change. They should avoid a rush to tick box or disproportionate regulation.
• The safety and dignity of patients is everyone’s responsibility, from the health secretary in Whitehall to the family member visiting a patient.
• Trust boards have the core responsibility for care standards and patient safety in their organisations.
• Managers have a critical role and should be held to account through appropriate procedures by trust boards. 
• The public needs to have confidence that managers are held to account, but statutory regulation of healthcare managers is not the solution. It would be legally and technically hard, expensive and very slow.  The so-called ‘negative register’ would have the same problems.
• Managers must be recruited carefully and given more systematic access to high quality training.
• Staff who raise concerns about care standards must be supported without fear of reprisal.
• Effective staff engagement and team work are essential to a healthy workplace culture and have a direct positive impact on standards of care.
• Everyone should make sure that patients’ safety, dignity and respect are at the heart of their work, and that includes listening and responding to patients.
• Scrutiny bodies, such as HealthWatch, need to be properly resourced to ensure the patients’ voices are heard.

Click through to see the statement in full