References

Cases double in NHS trust death and injury investigation. 2025. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp31gewg02do (accessed 13 January 2025)

NHS spends £14.7 bn a year treating patients in England hurt by care mistakes, says report. 2024. https://tinyurl.com/3z7d27vr (accessed 13 January 2025)

Department of Health and Social Care. Review of patient safety across the health and care landscape: terms of reference. 2024a. https://tinyurl.com/mer7htnk (accessed 13 January 2025)

Department of Health and Social Care. Duty of candour review (Call for evidence, closed). 2024b. https://tinyurl.com/4d94j45d (accessed 13 January 2025)

Department of Health and Social Care. Findings of the call for evidence on the statutory duty of candour (Research and analysis). 2024c. https://tinyurl.com/37nnb4u9r (accessed 13 January 2025)

The National State of Patient Safety: What we know about avoidable harm in England. 2022. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/institute-of-global-health-innovation/National-State-of-Patient-Safety-2022.pdf (accessed 13 January 2025)

The National State of Patient Safety 2024: Prioritising improvement efforts in a system under stress. (Part 1 section 1.). 2024. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/Stories/National-State-Patient-Safety-2024 (accessed 13 January 2025)

Only 2 in 5 see the Duty of Candour as being clear – why?. 2024. https://tinyurl.com/mszvh8p8 (accessed 13 January 2025)

Data trends and duty of candour: patient safety challenges in 2025

23 January 2025
Volume 34 · Issue 2

Abstract

John Tingle, Associate Professor, Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham, discusses some recently published reports considering the national patient safety picture and issues around the duty of candour

As we enter 2025 there is a lot in the NHS patient safety in-tray. Early on in January, Buchanan and Rowles (2025) for the BBC's File on 4 reported on a police investigation into allegations of preventable deaths and injuries. They stated that the claims centre on care and treatment provided by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust between 2015 and 2021:

‘Sussex Police started looking in 2023 into an initial 105 cases, but BBC File On 4 Investigates has learned that number is now more than 200.’

The media frequently report on NHS patient safety matters. I would predict, going by previous years, this will be set to continue in 2025.

The amount of Government activity in 2024, in terms of volume of patient safety consultations, was exceptional, in my view. The outputs of some of these consultations are now coming through.

I have frequently said in my columns that there is constant stream of excellent reports on patient safety coming into the NHS from various national and international stake holders. The topic of patient safety is a crucial one and will therefore rightly attract attention.

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