‘Nothing to see attitude’ to safety incidents uncovered at hospital

A troubled trust has revealed a backlog of more than 100 incidents requiring “high-level” safety investigations, as an external report warned of a “nothing to see” attitude towards governance.

Some 113 investigations were “closed without proper investigation”, with 428 incidents still “open”, board papers for Medway Foundation Trust suggest. Executives warned they had been forced to seek external help to tackle some of the backlog.

Most of the incidents, which the trust says require investigations or further action under the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework, were in medicine and emergency care.

The Trust is also having to carry out duty of candour processes for 59 cases where there was no or insufficient evidence that patients had been contacted, which it said was a “serious governance concern”. Some of these dated back to 2024.

In a strongly worded report to the board, its quality assurance committee said there were “significant governance and safety concerns requiring urgent attention”, and that the trust needs to move from “identification of issues to demonstrable improvement”.

The board papers also reference an external review carried out by Steve Lennox, a former chief nurse and improvement director, which suggested some staff in the governance team had a “nothing to see” approach to potential patient safety cases.

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Source: HSJ, 30 July 2026