Patient safety commissioner warns calls for changes are 'falling on deaf ears'

England's patient safety commissioner says her calls for changes following failings highlighted in three health scandals are "falling on deaf ears".

Dr Henrietta Hughes made the comments at a meeting in Westminster on Tuesday of MPs and campaigners of medical scandals.

It comes after Sir Brian Langstaff's highlighted a decades-long "subtle, pervasive, chilling" cover-up by successive governments and the NHS in the conclusion of his report on the infected blood scandal.

Like the victims of that scandal, those affected by epilepsy drug Valproate, as well as vaginal mesh implants, and the hormone pregnancy test Primodos, are also waiting on the government to implement a redress scheme. The three campaign groups have already had a combined review. In July 2020, the Cumberlege review found similar failings to the blood scandal: damaging products, poor regulatory decisions, and one government after another refusing to accept wrong had been done.

In February this year, the patient safety commissioner set out her "blueprint" of a redress scheme for victims.

However, Ms Hughes, who attended the First Do No Harm All Parliamentary group meeting, said on Tuesday: "I'm itching to get the changes that are needed, but I feel my words are falling on deaf ears."

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Source: Sky News, 21 May 2024