NHS ‘ignores staff, patients and families’, says minister

Health minister Gillian Merron has declared many patients have a poor experience of NHS care as a result of a “culture that has ignored the voice of staff [and] of patients and families for too long”.

Baroness Merron, who is the patient safety minister, said “much of what is wrong with the NHS and needs to change goes back to a culture that has ignored the voices of staff [and] of patients and their families for too long”.

She said there had “been good progress in improving patient safety, but we all know there is a long way to go”.

The minister was speaking at the launch of the new National State of Patient Safety report by Imperial College London’s Institute of Global Health Innovation, for Patient Safety Watch.

She said the government planned to improve culture, including with professional regulation of managers and a professional duty of candour. Baroness Merron said the new safety report was “going to contribute massively” to the government’s 10-year health plan.

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Source: HSJ, 13 December 2024