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Ministers warned over new powers to control patient safety watchdog


Plans to give the health secretary control over a patient safety watchdog risks “massive untold consequences” for the NHS, experts have warned.

Under proposals, Matt Hancock would be able to determine which incidents the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) should investigate, while also being able to remove protections for NHS staff that mean they can give evidence without fear of reprisals.

The move, outlined as part of wider reforms to the NHS, would give the health secretary far greater control over the HSIB than ministers currently have over the Air Accident Investigation Branch – on which the watchdog was modelled.

Experts said the proposals cut across the original intention of an independent body that would act without fear or favour and earn the confidence of NHS staff.

It is designed to operate under a so-called “safe space” for NHS staff to provide evidence of what went wrong during an incident without their testimony being used against them.

Martin Bromiley, chair of the Clinical Human Factors Group and member of the expert panel that recommended the creation of HSIB in 2016, said he was seriously concerned over the plans.

He said: “I am concerned about the reference to lifting safe space. As it stands with the Air Accident Investigation Branch people can apply to the High Court for it to be lifted and that makes sense because a judge can consider the whole case and the longer-term impact."

Carl Macrae, Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Psychology at Nottingham University Business School, told The Independent: “I am very pleased to see there are concrete plans to establish HSIB as an independent body, but I am concerned this independence appears to be undermined by giving the secretary of state the power to tell it what to investigate."

“People need to be able to trust that the healthcare investigator is acting with the sole purpose of improving safety and isn’t subject to political interference.”

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Source: The Independent, 24 February 2021

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