DoH Relegate duty of candour to standard clause in hospital contracts

Published: 4 Dec 2012

The Department of Health today announced that it will press ahead with its version of a Duty of Candour with patients when things go wrong – a mere standard clause in NHS contracts which will not cover GPs and dentists. This is in spite of widespread calls for a statutory duty as part of the ‘Essential Standards of Quality & Safety’ regulated by the Care Quality Commission, and an anticpated recommendation for a statutory duty from the Mid Staffordshire Public Inquiry. AvMA chief executive Peter Walsh described the move as an apparently cynical attempt to sidestep overwhelming support for a statutory duty and to pre-empt the public inquiry report. AvMA and other patients groups will continue to press for a full statutory duty of candour.