00:00There was a report from Lord Darzi last week commissioned and published in relation to
00:08assessing what the state of the NHS is in, what the key components are in terms of areas
00:15of focus for change and improvement. And so arising out of that comes a number of fairly
00:21shocking statistics in relation to the number of complaints that arise from NHS treatment,
00:28but also sort of key areas of concern, such as the extension of waiting lists, the number
00:32of patients waiting to be seen, and the number of claims that are arising out of the treatment
00:38that people are receiving.
00:40So could you just tell me a little bit more about what exactly clinical negligence is?
00:45Like how does it even come about?
00:47When a patient goes to see a doctor, dentist, either privately or within the NHS, then a
00:53duty of care arises to provide a reasonable standard of care. A claim will arise when
00:59the particular clinician breaches that duty of care and fails to provide a standard of
01:04care that no reasonable, responsible, respectable body of clinicians acting in that profession
01:10at that material time would have delivered. And an independence expert would be instructed
01:15to provide an opinion that assesses whether or not the treatment provided was reasonable.
01:20New initiatives such as the duty of candor mean that NHS trusts are being open and candid
01:27with patients when things have gone wrong. They're commissioning their own investigations,
01:31they're trying to create a culture within themselves that will allow for investigations
01:38and where an instance where harm has been occurred, and it's been avoidable, that those
01:43incidences can be looked at to try and make sure that patient safety is at the first and
01:50foremost paramount concern and lessons are learned from mistakes that are made. The government
01:54really need to focus and give some funding to that to allow the change to be implemented.
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