Patient safety bill to legislate for zero NHS harm

The MP’s private members’ bill the Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Bill also aims to establish new rules requiring professional regulators to consider public confidence in fitness to practise decisions.

It would place a duty on organisations to share information and use a common patient identifier, such as the patient’s NHS number, across health and social care.

The bill, put forward by Conservative MP for Stafford Jeremy Lefroy, has won the support of the coalition and Labour.

The government whips’ office has now taken control of the timetable for the bill, which has already had its first and second reading.

With the support of the coalition, it is likely to move to committee stage in December.

Mr Lefroy told HSJ: “This bill is all about patients, we have had enough bills about structure.

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“This is about writing the principle of putting patients first into law.”

If successful, the bill could lead to the creation of new regulations to prevent health and social care providers from causing avoidable harm to patients.

According to Mr Lefroy, instances of such harm could include leaving patients without adequate food or drink, patients being left unsupported in accident and emergency for long periods, poor records resulting in drug errors, and neglect as a result of understaffing.

The bill excludes harm that could not be “reasonably avoided” to take account of clinical risk.

In a speech to Parliament earlier this month, Mr Lefroy cited a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which identified 12,000 avoidable deaths in the NHS per year.

“How many lives would be saved if all providers had the same standards as the best in class? That is why it is so important to address avoidable harm through legislation,” he told MPs.

He accepted that legislation alone, without improvements in culture and leadership, would not solve the problems of avoidable harm, but added: “It is my belief and hope that it will make a recurrence much less likely.

“My constituents in Stafford will then know that all they have gone through over so many years will not have been in vain.”

The British Medical Association said it supported the clause on avoidable harm, but said it was “very concerned” about changes to professional regulation.

“[This] could lead to regulatory committees and panels punishing professionals who pose no threat to the public, solely on the basis that failure to do so might incur the disapproval of the public,” it said.

Harry Cayton, chief executive of the Professional Standards Authority which oversees the work of professional regulators, told HSJ the bill was a “partial step forward” after proposals from the Law Commission for reform of healthcare regulation were not included in the Queen’s Speech.

He added: “We think the new definitions included in the bill will help create clarity about the responsibility of the regulators for upholding public confidence in regulation as well as protecting the public.”

Health minister George Freeman said: “We fully support this bill.

“Mid Staffs was a turning point for the NHS, and Jeremy Lefroy’s proposed measures are a major step forward in making the NHS safer.”