NHS Redress Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 55:"Page 5, line 12, leave out paragraph (h)." The noble Earl said: The question I had intended to ask through this amendment has in large measure been answered in our earlier debates about lessons learned. However, I want to say a word in support of the thought contained in the Liberal Democrat amendment, Amendment No. 56. It is not quite enough for the lessons learned to be promulgated within the trust. The process is important, but equally important for the patient is that that fact itself is public knowledge. The patient wants to know that some wider good has been served by the investigation he has instigated. Indeed, I believe—it may be somewhat naively, but I hope not—that the knowledge that lessons have been learned and are being acted upon, alongside receiving an apology and an explanation, will in many cases be enough for patients. That is another reason why I am unhappy with the Government’s model of the redress scheme. It will result in payments of money which many complainants will not regard as their priority and which they might not necessarily have chosen to pursue. By contrast, and without seeking to labour the point, under the model that I have spoken about where the scheme restricts itself to being a factual investigation, it would be up to the patient or whoever is the applicant to decide whether to apply for monetary compensation once the facts and an explanation have been presented. I beg to move.