Hospitals have been accused of burying the results of dozens of secret reports written by expert groups of doctors asked to investigate patient safety problems.
NHS trusts have been criticised for “disgraceful secrecy” for not publishing the reports, and often not even sharing them with regulators charged with overseeing standards of care.
While trusts have asked medical royal colleges to undertake 111 “invited reviews” over the last five years, they have put only 16 in the public domain, BBC One’s Panorama will reveal on Wednesday.
In addition, just 26 of the reports were shared in full with NHS regulators, such as the Care Quality Commission, which monitors care standards in the health service in England. Such widespread non-disclosure appears to be a breach of their duty, introduced in 2015 after the Morecambe Bay maternity care scandal, to give a copy of such reports to regulatory bodies.
Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard, the chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, told Panorama she was “dismayed” that summaries of invited review reports were not being made public.
“If things are not being shared, and if that has implications for patient safety, that must be put right. The fact that a review is done should never be secret and indeed a summary of the findings should always be published,” she said.
Panorama sent freedom of information (FoI) requests to every NHS trust and health board in the UK. It found out that they had commissioned one of Britain’s medical royal colleges to undertake an investigation into worrying lapses in cases, some of which involved patients dying. They obtained a copy of 80 of the 111 reports. Of those, 65 were into potential or actual concerns around patient safety.
However, only 16 of the 111 reports had been published and just 26 shared with regulators.
“These findings are both shocking and worrying,” said Peter Walsh, the chief executive of the patient safety charity Action Against Medical Accidents.
“Reports from royal colleges of this nature are commissioned to identify and find solutions to patient safety problems. It is disgraceful that there is such widespread secrecy over such important reports and, worse still, failure to act upon them.” There should be a new legal duty put on trusts to publish these reports, Walsh added.
Panorama, presented by Faye Kirkland, will disclose that in 2015 the Royal College of Physicians, which represents hospital doctors, reviewed Royal Liverpool University hospital’s care of patients with vasculitis, which is inflammation of blood vessels. It ordered a review of all patients treated in the previous two years.
However further FoI requests showed that, while the review covered 400 patients, 18 months later only a quarter had been checked. Among a group of 26 patients who were on powerful medications, two had been given them “inappropriately”, four received “possibly excessive” doses and three had died due to side-effects of the drugs.
Prof Ted Baker, the CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, said NHS trusts and professional bodies undertaking reviews should ensure they pass a copy to the CQC. “It is extremely disappointing that despite this very clear expectation, we continue to see examples of a lack of transparency.”
Prof Stephen Powis, NHS England’s medical director, said: “Patient safety is of great importance and there are robust and transparent systems to ensure hospitals and other care providers learn and improve their services.
“All independent reviews should be made available to relevant health commissioners and regulators, including the CQC, and NHS England and Improvement expects trusts to take prompt action to address appropriate recommendations made.”
Panorama: Hospital Secrets Uncovered is on BBC One at 7.30pm on Wednesday
