Ministers to launch public consultation on proposals they say will end ‘culture of cover-up’ in health service
NHS managers who silence whistleblowers or endanger patients through misconduct face being sacked and barred from working in the health service for life under radical government plans to regulate thousands of bosses for the first time.
Ministers will begin a public consultation on Tuesday seeking views on the proposals, which they say are designed to eradicate a “culture of cover-up” in the NHS. It follows a series of scandals over the last decade at trusts including Morecambe Bay, East Kent and Shrewsbury and Telford.
A statutory duty of candour making NHS managers legally accountable for responding to concerns about patient safety could also be introduced as part of the government’s plans.
Measures being considered include “statutory barring mechanisms”, similar to systems used for teachers, which could see health bosses who have been deemed to be unfit to practise appearing on a centrally held list.
Tens of thousands of clinical and non-clinical managers work in the NHS but there is no single framework to regulate them in the same way as there is for doctors and nurses. The consultation will run for 12 weeks, after which ministers will consider responses and set out the next steps.
Karin Smyth, a minister in the Department of Health and Social Care, said the proposals formed part of the government’s plans to end the “revolving door” that allows failing bosses...
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