Overview

The duty of candour is a statutory (legal) duty to be open and honest with patients (or anyone who uses our services), or their families, when something goes wrong that appears to have caused, or could lead to, significant harm. It applies to all health and social care organisations registered with the regulator in England, which is the Care Quality Commission in England.

We want to be open and honest with you about what happens. This commitment is part of the statutory duty of candour, which is a legal requirement across the NHS.

Types of incidents covered by the duty of candour

The regulations for NHS organisations say a ‘notifiable safety incident’ is ‘an unintended or unexpected incident… that could result in, or appears to have resulted in, the death of a service user… or severe or moderate harm or prolonged psychological harm to the service user’.

In simpler language, it means that we must tell you about any incident where the care or treatment might have gone wrong, and appears to have caused significant harm, or could do.

Why you have been given this information

We are committed to being transparent and honest when an incident has happened.

Making sure patients are kept safe is one of our highest priorities. We are committed to doing everything we can to prevent patient safety incidents, but occasionally patients are involved in an incident and come to harm while in our care. This could be an unintended complication of a procedure or from an unexpected error. Most instances of harm are small or can be resolved easily. Occasionally, patients suffer more significant harm, and we will do our best to make sure other patients will be safer in the future.
What to expect? 

Staff at all our sites are committed to explaining, apologising, and making things right, if someone is harmed in our care.

We are committed to creating a safe and supportive space where you can ask questions freely, without any concern about it affecting your care.

Openness and honesty are at the heart of what we do, making sure you feel informed, respected, and empowered throughout your healthcare journey.

If our care or treatment results in significant harm, we will provide both a verbal (spoken) and written apology. We will also share the results of any review or learning process, to maintain transparency and continue improving our patient care.

What duty of candour means for you

When a patient experiences significant harm, our clinical teams will:

• communicate openly and honestly with you or your family as soon as possible
• discuss what happened, its impact on you or your loved one’s condition, and the ongoing care plan
• answer your questions, while acknowledging that some information may not be immediately available
• offer a sincere apology for the harm caused
• clarify if more investigations are required
• keep you and your family informed if an investigation is ongoing
• provide support to you and your family
• assign a contact person for any questions or concerns
• follow up in writing, summarising the key points of the discussion

What happens next?

Where an incident has caused significant harm, our clinical teams will:

• make sure the incident has been reported on the hospital incident-reporting system
• discuss the incident with a senior team from the hospital, where appropriate
• act on what we find out when the incident is reviewed, and contact you (or your nominated representative) to discuss your involvement in this review or any planned learning activity. This might be a letter or formal report, an opportunity to discuss what happened, or something else.

Learning from your experience and perspective is vital for us as it helps improve the safety of those we care for. We encourage your feedback about what else we can do or should consider doing to improve processes.

If you would prefer not to be contacted about the incident, please let us know. If you need more time, we can contact you again when you feel ready.

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