Health and Social Care Bill

My Lords, in moving Amendment 38A, I must explain to your Lordships why it is so important. I wish only that the Minister, the noble Earl, Lord Howe, was moving it. When legislation is before your Lordships it is our duty to try to improve it. For years there has been a serious cover up and a closing of ranks in many cases when something has gone wrong with patients' treatment and they or their next of kin have not been kept informed. If there is not openness and honesty, there could be years of frustration and consternation resulting from trying to find the truth through litigation. The only winners are the lawyers. Last Monday at 8 pm on Radio 4, and today, there was a programme entitled ““Doctor—Tell Me the Truth””. The programme explores how patient safety can be improved by doctors admitting to mistakes. In some states in America, medical practitioners must be open about their errors. Instead of increasing litigation, this has lessened it. I was involved through the Patients Association with some of the next of kin of the patients who tragically died in the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust hospital. I congratulate the Government on holding a review into the hospital, where the culture was the very worst and there was a fear to disclose the truth. Surely it is time we put something into legislation to help change this culture. I was sorry that the amendment which I previously moved—which would have introduced a statutory obligation to provide a duty of candour applying to all providers registered with the Care Quality Commission—did not succeed. However, it was made clear by the Minister that the CQC could not undertake this role. Perhaps it has too much to do satisfactorily and it is just not up to it. The Minister, the noble Earl, Lord Howe, said: "““I remind the House that the Government's preferred position is to place a duty of candour in the NHS standard contracts. We have chosen that route because we feel that it has the best chance of working. The view that we have taken, on the basis of clinical advice, is that responsibility for ensuring openness needs to rest as close to the front line as possible, rather than being the responsibility of a remote organisation such as the CQC””.—[Official Report, 13/2/12; col. 591.]" An independent body still seems to me to be the best option as it is transparency and honesty that we need, and front-line medical personnel may still try to cover the mistakes made by members of their profession. I hope not. Amendment 38A covers what the Government say is the best route to go down. I have had letters imploring me not to give up as so many members of the public, who have been patients or who are their next of kin, have had bad experiences and feel now is the time to change this culture of fear and secrecy. The amendment makes provision for, "““a requirement to be placed upon any organisation that enters into a commissioning contract to provide healthcare with the Board or with a clinical commissioning group to take all reasonable steps to ensure that a patient or, in the event of death or incapacity, their next of kin, is fully informed about incidents which occur as a consequence of providing the contracted healthcare to that patient where the incident has resulted in””—" and the amendment goes on to mention various harms. If the amendment is not quite correct, perhaps the Minister would accept it and correct it for Third Reading. It would be a start to something that must happen if patients and families are to have much-needed trust in the professionals who care for them. I beg to move.