The Commons cross-party Health and Social Care Committee are conducting an inquiry into NHS leadership, performance, and patient safety.
The inquiry is looking at:
- How effectively does NHS leadership encourage a culture in which staff feel confident raising patient safety concerns, and what more could be done to support this?
- What has been the impact of the 2019 Kark Review on leadership in the NHS as it relates to patient safety?
- What progress has been made to date on recommendations from the 2022 Messenger Review?
- How effectively have leadership recommendations from previous reviews of patient safety crises been implemented?
- How could better regulation of health service managers and application of agreed professional standards support improvements in patient safety?
- How effectively do NHS leadership structures provide a supportive and fair approach to whistleblowers, and how could this be improved?
- How could investigations into whistleblowing complaints be improved?
- How effectively does the NHS complaints system prevent patient safety incidents from escalating and what would be the impact of proposed measures to improve patient safety, such as Martha’s Rule?
- What can the NHS learn from the leadership culture in other safety-critical sectors e.g. aviation, nuclear?
The deadline for submissions is 8 March 2024. Written evidence can be submitted here of no more than 3,000 words.
