Government criticised over failure to implement patient safety recommendations

Experts have rebuked the government for failing to implement accepted patient safety recommendations—some nearly a decade old—made by several major inquiries.

The Health and Social Care Committee’s expert panel report, published on 22 March, highlighted shortcomings across three policy areas—maternity care and leadership, training of health and social care staff, and safety culture and whistleblowing.1

It notes a “worrying” decline in the proportion of NHS staff who feel safe raising concerns about patient safety and said ministers had failed to provide adequate funding to train staff to take up targeted interventions on leadership and organisational values.

Steve Brine, chair of the committee, said it was “disturbing” to hear of delays in fully implementing important patient safety measures.

The panel was commissioned …