I cannot answer that; I am not on the Front Bench.
We all agree that there is no place for gagging clauses if lessons are to be learned about patient care. I agree that the Government have made an important announcement today, but let me remind the Secretary of State that the NHS issued management directions in 1999 and 2004. I am concerned that the NHS still needs
reminding about these gagging clauses. We must get away from a system in which whistleblowers are driven out of their jobs on spurious disciplinary issues. At Mid Staffs, doctors and nurses are under disciplinary reviews, but as yet I have not heard anything about whether managers will also be held to account.
Action plans that arise from complaints are a vital part of organisational learning, but they are only of value if they are followed through to implementation, and it was clear from evidence to us in the Select Committee that that did not happen at Mid Staffs.
Publication of complaints data must be obligatory for all care providers, including foundation trusts and private providers with NHS contracts. We must move away, as the hon. Member for Southport (John Pugh) said, from the blame and victim culture and reduce the emphasis on disciplinary procedures. We must put more emphasis on retraining and risk management.
We should enshrine accountability for patients at board level, making boards more diverse, not just comprising the usual suspects. Private providers, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) said, are not subject to FOI; they must be. The register of GPs’ interests must be open to clinical commissioning groups. It should not be up to the public to ask whether GPs have declared their interests. Every decision must be associated with a list of GPs’ interests.
I have spoken to the chief executive of the Royal Orthopaedic hospital, who said that he ensures that doctors, nurses and managers are all on an equal footing, which is an example of good practice. His phrase is that there should be “no gap between board and ward”. He puts his patient groups on the board, every ward gets rolling visits and board members even feed the patients.
In my own way, I have also been accountable and I have published on my website a table of all the complaints my constituents have come to me about so that they can see what sort of things are going on at the Manor hospital. The chief executive of the hospital is undertaking a patient survey and ensures that he looks at all the responses.
I hope that I have outlined some positive aspects as a way of moving forward and that we will continue to have an accountable, transparent and unique NHS that is the best in the world.
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