Action is needed to tackle the persistence of blame cultures and fear of speaking up in the NHS. This is according to the latest report by Patient Safety Learning. So, how can we strive to achieve ‘a culture of safety’, where staff feel able to speak up and organisations learn from mistakes without apportioning blame?
Following the inquiry into devastating failures at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, Robert Francis QC published his review into 'speaking up' in 2015. In this seminal report, he set out the key recommendation that: "Every organisation involved in providing NHS healthcare, should actively foster a culture of safety and learning, in which all staff feel safe to raise concerns."1
Among the recommendations in the report, Robert Francis called for the following:
NHS Improvement and NHS England later published an NHS Patient Safety Strategy in July 2019,2 which reinforced the need to act on the recommendation to implement 'a culture of safety and learning'. NHS Improvement and NHS England stated that the NHS will need to build on two foundations: a patient safety culture and a patient safety system. Three strategic aims were outlined to support their development:
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