Time to learn the lessons: how the NHS must now change – and what you can do to help

NHS staff do an amazing job – they deserve proper training and support to give them the confidence to deal with mistakes openly and transparently

Ensuring everyone who uses the NHS gets a high standard of care means ensuring lessons are learned when things go wrong (AFP/Getty)

The Independent supports the NHS, and backs its hardworking nurses and doctors who do a heroic job for millions of patients under intense pressure. It is a service of which the country is rightly proud.

But the public’s support cannot be taken for granted. The revelations in the leaked interim report about the appalling standards of care at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust underlines the need for a culture change in the health service when things go wrong.

It is time to stop accepting that “one offs” will happen, and for the health service to be bolder and more confident in learning the lessons when it makes mistakes. To do this, clinicians and health service managers must work harder to include patients and their families when investigating clinical errors.

The NHS also needs the support of ministers in improving care standards. Therefore, The Independent calls on the next government:

• To introduce a mandatory requirement on NHS organisations to involve patients or their families in investigations of incidents. Learning how to deal properly with clinical errors must also form a core part of undergraduate training for medical, nursing and midwifery students
• To restore the £8.1m funding for NHS trusts across England as part of a Maternity Safety Training Fund which saw 30,000 staff helped to improve maternity safety in 2016. Despite a positive evaluation, this has been cut. The next government must commit to its reintroduction and expansion to cover all maternity units

We have also partnered with Baby Lifeline, which was founded by Judy Ledger in 1981 after she suffered the loss of three premature babies.

The charity raises funds to support the care of pregnant women and babies across the world, as well as helping to deliver specialist training to NHS staff via its not-for-profit social enterprise.

It has already raised £12m and The Independent invites readers to back this charity and its unique work to help save babies and deliver a safer NHS. To donate, click or tap here.