NHS staff at all levels and their hospital trusts are supposed to be frank and open with patients who suffer harm when mistakes are made.

The law requires that they apply what is called the ‘duty of candour’ but it is not always happening in reality.

Unless everyone within the NHS adheres to the duty, avoidable failures in patient care will continue to happen. Transparency is critical if lessons are to be learned and the same patterns of harm are not repeated time and again.

We know of patients who have suffered life-altering harm but still do not know what happened to them because no one within the health service has explained what went wrong. Patients need and deserve those answers.

Of course, candour is just part of the solution to the patient safety crisis in the NHS. There are many frameworks, schemes, and reporting mechanisms but the system lacks cohesion. For positive change to take place there needs to be an overarching strategy and strong leadership which makes an all-encompassing link between patients, regulators, healthcare providers, and policymakers.

Guy Forster

Joint vice president

APIL (the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers)