MDU raises concerns over culture of blame within government's healthcare changes
The Medical Defence Union (MDU) has expressed concerns over the changes to the NHS outlined in the government's response to the Francis enquiry announced by Jeremy Hunt today.
Dr Christine Tomkins, chief executive of the MDU, which indemnifies over 200,000 of the UK's doctors said:
"We agree wholeheartedly with the government that a culture of openness and transparency is of the utmost importance to the UK's health service and that changes should be made to encourage this further. We are also pleased to see that the government acknowledges the difficulties that healthcare workers face when there are inadequate staffing levels and will put plans in place to change this.
"In our experience doctors are honest and do not deliberately withhold information from patients. With this in mind, we are pleased that the government has no plans to introduce a statutory duty of candour for individuals as we believe it would be disproportionate and unnecessary.
"It is however, important that doctors are encouraged, not discouraged, to continue to raise concerns and alert patients if something goes wrong. Doctors should not feel that if they are open and honest they will face blame and we are worried that many of the changes announced today have an underlying current of blame within them.
"We remain uneasy about the suggestion that a criminal sanction of wilful neglect will be introduced. Doctors already have an ethical duty to adhere to and there is already provision for legal recourse if required."
