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Enabling open
and honest
communication
Complying with our Duty of Candour
• Speak up if you see that a patient has been, could be, or is being harmed. Tell your line manager immediately.
• Be open and honest with patients when something goes wrong, and apologise at an appropriate point.
• Document in the patient’s medical records all events, discussions and apologies.
• Complete our Duty of Candour e-learning training.
• Report incidents on Datix. This will start an investigation into what’s happened, why and what we can learn from it.
Duty of candour
Openness, transparency & honesty
One of our commitments is to ensure that The London Clinic has a culture that actively supports open and honest dialogue. We have a professional Duty of Candour, which means we must tell patients when something goes wrong with their treatment, or where their care causes, or has the potential to cause, harm or distress.
We also have a statutory duty of candour when a notifiable safety incident occurs, which need to meet all of the following criteria:
• It must have been unintended or unexpected
• It must have occurred during care or treatment at The London Clinic
• In the reasonable opinion of a healthcare professional, it already has, or might, result in death, or moderate to severe harm to the person receiving treatment or care.
There are specific steps that have to be taken once a decision’s been made that an incident meets the above criteria for statutory duty of candour.
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