I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his intervention. No one is running away with the idea that a culture of defending a case to the death or the last minute is a suitable way for the NHS to do business. I sincerely hope that we can create a different culture, because delay and prevarication in cases in which a mistake has been made or in which negligence is apparent are not good for people working in the NHS or for the public.
As I have said, it is extremely sad, but mistakes are made. Anyone who has been a member of an NHS team dealing with a mistake will know that it is extremely distressing for the doctor responsible. When I was working in Crawley hospital, a gentleman in one of the units was sadly given a massive overdose of the chemotherapy treatment that he was receiving for a serious blood disorder. There was a systemic problem, as the way in which the drug was drawn up and delivered had led to the mistake. Everyone in the team was desperately upset and the team leader, Dr. Nandi—she is an oncologist who treats people with blood disorders—worked throughout the night, having worked all day at the hospital. She brought her young children to sleep on the ward because she had to stay at the hospital to deal with the emergency. She conducted an exchange transfusion for the gentleman throughout the night. The whole team was present, including the doctor who had made the mistake and who was utterly mortified. I am glad to report that they managed to save that man’s life, which was a spectacular success considering how poorly he was and how awful the event.
It took months for that gentleman to secure redress for a genuine mistake. He did not want to denude the NHS of huge amounts of money. He wanted to make sure that the pharmacy department worked more closely with doctors on the way in which drugs were delivered, and he wanted someone to say sorry. In that case, no one was backward in coming forward. If a different system had been in place and if we had been in a position to set up an investigation that was quick to achieve a conclusion and offer an apology, he would have received his just desserts much sooner. I will always remember him as somebody who would benefit from the Bill.
I have seen the situation from both sides and I believe that the Bill will deliver confidence in the NHS. As I have said, people are not convinced that battalions of lawyers must be involved. They want an apology; they want somebody to accept that a mistake has been made. They want the NHS to recognise that sometimes people do not do the job that they should do. I have no doubt that most of the cases taken under the Bill will be genuine mistakes and things that have gone wrong, but there are, of course, times when people are negligent in their work and need to be admonished. However, we should be glad that such cases are relatively rare. I am sure that a system such as the one under discussion will expose things still further—we must have the ability to ensure that we have a clear pathway for amending mistakes and making apologies.
Let me repeat—delay is not good for the teams of staff under investigation, any more than it is for the people having to wait for their apology. Confidence will be returned to the NHS as a result of the Bill, which will create a culture of change. I have listened carefully to our debate. The contributions have been excellent and there is a willingness in the House to settle the matter and to put a scheme in place. However, the best people to tell us whether the scheme is of value are those who use it, so we should evaluate and review the scheme, without jumping in and assuming that we need to add in all sorts of independents, before we go on to make any changes. I urge the Minister to come back to the House and tell Members how people feel about the scheme and how effective it is for them. I believe that people will be happy to support a system that is simple and that creates confidence in the NHS, and I am certainly happy to do so.
NHS Redress Bill [Lords]
Proceeding contribution from
Laura Moffatt
(Labour)
in the House of Commons on Monday, 5 June 2006.
It occurred during Debate on bills on NHS Redress Bill [HL].
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
447 c59-61 
Session
2005-06
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
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Timestamp
2024-04-21 12:52:38 +0100
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