What now for deprivations of liberty?
What will the effect of the postponement of the Liberty Protections Safeguards be on local authorities? Local Government Lawyer asked 50 adult social care lawyers for their views on the potential consequences.
SPOTLIGHT |
SPOTLIGHT |
The Commons health select committee has launched an inquiry into the sharp rise in complaints against the NHS and the reasons behind the inflation of litigation costs in recent years.
The committee said it was “vital that the NHS addresses complaints in a way which satisfies patients and their families in order to maintain confidence in the service”.
It added that complaints could also be an early warning of systemic problems, citing the chair of the public inquiry into Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust who acknowledged that “the trust failed to listen to patients' concerns, the board did not review the substance of complaints and incident reports were not given the necessary attention”.
The MPs also highlighted the Health Service Ombudsman’s recently published report on its first year of operation. In her foreword, Ann Abraham said: “The NHS needs to listen harder and learn more from complaints. When it fails to do so, it is missing a rich source of insight and information that is freely and readily available and comes directly from service users.”
The committee therefore called for written evidence on:
The health select committee pointed out that litigation – as a means of seeking redress for failures in treatment – imposed a significant cost on the NHS.
“NHS institutions spend hundreds of millions of pounds in premium to insure against litigation, and that does not cover the independent sector, including General Practitioners, who make their own arrangements,” it said.
In this respect, it called for evidence on:
The deadline for submitting written evidence is noon on Tuesday 21 December 2010.