Duty of Candour

The Francis Report recommends a statutory Duty of Candour with criminal and regulatory penalties for non-compliance.

When this comes into force it will mean that individual doctors, nurses and other health care professionals could face criminal sanctions if they lawfully obstruct anyone in the performance of their statutory duty.

The Duty of Candour is a contractual obligation requiring the Trust to report and investigate ‘reportable patient safety incidents’.

The Trust is obligated under Service Condition 35 of the 2013/14 NHS Standard Contract to comply with the Duty of Candour when a patient under the Trust’s care suffers Moderate Harm, Major Harm or dies as a result of an adverse incident.

The Board of Directors receives a monthly update on patient safety incidents in the Quality & Safety Report.