Photograph by Pete
The government is to proposes plans to sentence doctors and nurses found guilty of “wilful neglect” to jail.
Following a number of recent care scandals, including most recently with the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, the government will propose reforms to the NHS where wilful neglect will be made a criminal offence – one of the major recommendations to come from the Francis report of investigation into the 1,200 excess deaths Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.
The Department of Health will carry out a consultation on the length of sentence that will come with such an offence in the coming weeks, with a maximum of five years to be proposed.
Prime Minister David Cameron said:
“The NHS is full of brilliant doctors, nurses and other health workers who dedicate their lives to caring for our loved ones.
But Mid-Staffordshire hospital showed that sometimes the standard of care is not good enough. That is why we have taken a number of different steps that will improve patient care and improve how we spot bad practice.
Never again will we allow substandard care, cruelty or neglect to go unnoticed.”
