The Times today picks up on the failure of NHS England to publish full reports following patient homicides.
Is there a reason why family’s have not been permitted to see the details of inquiries?
My understanding is they claim it would breach patient confidentiality - but there are exemptions to data protection laws (public interest, confidence in public services, protection of the public etc) and case law (Stone) - particularly for mentally unwell offenders who commit very serious crimes - which would allow the NHS to share reports if they so wished.
I can 't read the actual article due to the paywall.
But from the info above it mentions ‘a policy change’ - do you know what this policy change is and what it was before the change?
You also write in your words ‘breach of confidentiality’ whose personal data would this encroach? Would it be to do with each of the family’s loved ones in the case or the professional persons involved in VC’s care - or VC himself?
Thanks for your reply Julian.
NHS England introduced the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) in 2022, which mandated that affected families must receive investigation reports.
I understand that last year they received (in my view questionable) legal advice which suggested to do so would breach data protection laws and the patient confidentiality of the offender.
In the VC case it would be his patient confidentiality that would be potentially breached, but after some discussion it was decided that the public interest in this case (an exemption to data protection laws) would allow the lawful publication of the inquiry report in full.
Hope this helps.
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Ok - so is the report you posted the inquiry report in full?
The PSIRF was in 2022. So in 2024 after the incident had taken place they sought legal advice and decided to change the policy? Is there a new version of this policy?
It makes no sense - would you need legal advice for something as serious as this? It’s clearly within the criteria of public interest - should be a straight forward decision.
Apologies for all the questions haha - I’m just curious about all of this.
Yes it’s the full report. I’m not sure why they felt it necessary to get legal advice subsequently.
Although the PSIRF policy is still in place, my understanding is that there is not yet a new agreed national policy on publication and sharing inquiry reports following the legal advice. I’d like to see it!
I’m not sure NHS England has a sufficient grasp of public interest.
Not sure if they were busy protecting the public or themselves…
Thanks again for your reply.
I am involved in a local Domestic Homicide Review which has lasted for 3 years already. The family are understandably desperately keen to know the outcome and see the whole report. Have just been told it is “with the Home Office” (do they mean NHS England?) and that I should expect significant changes and cuts to be made. I can see no good reason for this
The Times article was clickbait - in my opinion - and I indemnify the forum owner against lawsuit for that opinion and all other opinions in this post.
For full text of The Times article: NHS blocks report on Nottingham killer citing his patient confidentiality
The article contained no hard evidence or reference to real evidence. It was a Nicki Minaj sort of story: Nicki Minaj’s Cousin’s Friend’s Balls, Explained | GQ
NHS England published the 300+ page report on 05/02/2025 An independent investigation into the care and treatment provided to VC. I studied it. It seemed ‘damned’ full to me.
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Draft DHRs go to an Assurance Panel at the Home Office for quality checks, if they find deficiencies they can ask for changes. There used t9o be a large backlog of reports so the process can often be lengthy.
At the time the Times article was published on the Monday, NHS England were only planning to publish a 30 page executive summary. After the article appeared and following other media stories, they ‘reconsidered’ and the full report was published on the Wednesday.
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In other words - they had no choice but to release the report in order to save face.
Not sure why the public would want to know about Nicki Minaj’s cousin’s friend’s balls - let alone have it explained to them.
We live in a very confusing world.
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For information: NHS England is a non-departmental public body that is almost exclusively controlled by ‘your government.’ NHS England is not ‘the NHS’ contrary to popular belief. But crowd belief rules in a social media world. Any comment on NHS England is comment about the government, which is therefore political comment.