Duty of Candour In NHS "Not Working", Says Inquiry Chair
Bill Kirkup (Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo)
3 min read
The NHS is failing to be honest with patients when things go wrong, according to a former chair of investigations into preventable deaths on maternity wards.
All healthcare professionals have a legal duty of candour – a responsibility to be open and honest with those under their care when mistakes are made. The government introduced a statutory duty of candour in 2014, after a public inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust found systemic poor care led to unnecessary deaths.
However, according to Bill Kirkup, who has led investigations into Morecambe Bay NHS trust and Oxford paediatric cardiac surgery unit, and has sat on the Hillsborough Inquiry, the duty of candour in the NHS is “not working”.
Speaking at the launch of the Committee on Standards in Public Life’s report into how public sector bodies can better recognise problems early on, Kirkup said: “I hear repeatedly people saying, ‘oh well, you've already got a duty of candour in the health service’.
“We have theoretically, but it does not work. It might work sometimes when the stakes aren't too high, but when the stakes are high, it does not work.”
Kirkup referenced the case of baby Ida Lock, who passed away from a brain injury in 2019 after midwives failed to provide basic medical care. Ida’s mother, Sarah, later told an inquest that nurses questioned whether she was "sure" she had ever smoked, despite her saying she had never done so.
“The really shocking thing about that was that Ida was delivered in the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. That is part of the Morecambe Bay Trust – the very same trust that had had that investigation in 2015, and four years later, they were treating a baby and her family like that,” said Kirkup.
“That's why we need this more than anywhere in the health service. And that's why, if anybody tells you we've got a duty of candour and it's working, please, please don't believe them.”
PoliticsHome has contacted the government and NHS England for comment.
While health and social care providers and schools must abide by a duty of candour, Labour has also committed to introducing a legal duty of candour for public authorities in its manifesto.
The Hillsborough Law was due to be introduced before the anniversary of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, when 97 football fans died in a crowd crush at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. The law would impose criminal sanctions on those who have lied about mistakes made, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said last year.
However, the government has failed to deliver this before the Hillsborough anniversary, according to The Times, with campaigners arguing the bill has been watered down.
The campaign for the Hillsborough Law has been supported by victims of both the infected blood scandal and Grenfell Tower fire.
Last month, PoliticsHome reported that ministers were considering introducing a new oversight body to ensure the recommendations of public inquiries are implemented, and that an announcement was planned to coincide with the introduction of the Hillsborough Law.
