Health Service Ombudsman announces review of approach to potentially avoidable death cases
Health Service Ombudsman, Dame Julie Mellor, DBE, has today (12 July 2012) announced an external review of the way in which her organisation handles cases involving potentially avoidable death. The review is part of a wider exploration, already underway, of how the Ombudsman’s service can increase its impact, for individuals and the wider public.
Baroness Rennie Fritchie, DBE has been commissioned to conduct the review, and make recommendations about how the Ombudsman’s service can respond to such complaints in future, to ensure that work in this area can be of most benefit to the people who complain and to the wider public. The review will include looking at how the Ombudsman can best share patient safety concerns and lessons learned from complaints about avoidable deaths with service providers, healthcare and professional regulators.
Announcing the review, Julie Mellor said:
‘As an organisation we’re exploring how we might have more impact for more people in future. In the context of this, I’m commissioning this specific piece of work to identify what lessons we can learn from past cases to inform how we approach these very serious issues in future. I hope that the review will help us to be as effective as we possibly can be in putting right individual wrongs and sharing information in future.’
The review will not be looking again at decisions previously made about any individual cases.
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Notes to editors
- The Health Service Ombudsman’s role is to consider complaints that the NHS in England has not acted properly or fairly or have provided a poor service. Dame Julie Mellor, DBE holds the post of Health Service Ombudsman for England and is also Parliamentary Ombudsman. Julie Mellor took up the role in January 2012.
- Baroness Fritchie is a Consultant on strategy and leadership. She is also Chair of 2gether NHS Foundation Trust for Mental Health in Gloucester, past Chair of NHS South West Region and Gloucester District Health Authority, Chair of the Independent Selection Board, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Chair of Nominet the .uk Registry, and past Vice Chair of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Audit and Advisory Committee. In her role as Commissioner of Public Appointments, Baroness Fritchie became a member of the Ombudsman Association, and her membership of the Association continues. Baroness Fritchie was Commissioner for Public Appointments for seven years, she is also Chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire, and has been awarded Honorary Degrees by seven Universities.
- To contact the Ombudsman’s Press Office please call 0300 061 4996/3924 or email press@ombudsman.org.uk
