REDRESS FOR NHS PATIENTS

That this House believes that, where untoward incidents have taken place in NHS hospital settings, patients rightly wish to find out what happened, why things went wrong, and how similar mistakes can be avoided in the future; notes that the NHS Redress Bill would establish a mechanism for an investigation into the facts of clinical negligence cases and for the NHS Litigation Authority to make an assessment of liability; believes that the fact-finding stage must be independent in order to ensure that such an investigation has the confidence of patients, relatives and healthcare staff and to ensure an open and transparent investigation so that lessons are learnt for the benefit of others; further believes that independence can only be guaranteed by the individual overseeing the investigation being independent of the trust under investigation; and calls on the Government to ensure that any investigation under the proposed NHS redress scheme would be independent.