NHS Redress Bill [HL]

If I were being mischievous—which I never am—I would be pleased to see the odd chink, which may turn into a great crack, opening up between the noble Baroness and the noble Earl in this particular area. Setting aside such mischief, it is worth returning to why we are having a scheme. We are having a scheme for three main reasons: first; to provide a real alternative to litigation for cases that fall within the scheme. This is a good opportunity to deal with many of the claims that go to the courts at the moment at considerable distress to patients over a longish period of time and which incur heavy legal costs, proportionate to the redress that is administered. Secondly, the scheme would place the emphasis on putting things right for patients as a matter of course. That involves a raft of things other than the issue of paying financial compensation to people. That second aim requires a great deal of work with regard to the relationship between the patient and the people who administer the services. That brings me to the third main aim, on which I thought we were all agreed—to contribute to a culture of learning in the NHS, providing impetus for wider service improvements. I understand the noble Earl’s case, but it totally damages some of the objectives of this scheme, which is to enable the NHS trusts to learn from their mistakes. I strongly suggest to the Committee that asking organisations to learn from their mistakes in this area and setting up from the outset independent investigators into all those areas of activity is likely to lead to a set of circumstances where people become defensive and the behaviour that is actually created is the exact opposite of what we are seeking to achieve in this Bill. We are trying to get people to face up to their responsibilities when they have made mistakes, which means that they should make their own clinical governance arrangements work more effectively. It means people inside the trust drawing attention to the things that have gone wrong, having the courage to notify patients that something has gone wrong and carrying out those investigations themselves. We may have to have a difference of view.