Raising and escalating concerns about patient care: RCN guidance

In November 2020 the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) published a new policy document for nurses, nursing associates, students and healthcare support workers entitled Raising and Escalating Concerns (RCN, 2020). The document emphasised that all care staff should feel safe and supported when raising any concerns about patient care. The guidance is timely, given the stress on NHS staff caused by the ongoing pandemic.

Following the events at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and the subsequent public inquiry (Francis, 2013), new strategies to promote patient safety were introduced across the NHS (Health Foundation, 2021).

Despite the introduction of these new patient safety procedures, December 2020 saw the publication of an interim report into the deaths of mothers and babies at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust (Ockenden, 2020). The review, led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden, reported on the largest number of individual clinical reviews ever conducted as part of an inquiry relating to a single clinical service in the history of the NHS.