Duty of Candour
Duty of Candour requires the Trust to act in an open and transparent way with people receiving care from us. We are committed to the principles of openness, honesty and transparency and aim to learn from all incidents and engage service users and families in the review process.
Our Duty of Candour policy defines the incidents to which Duty of Candour applies, sets out the duties and responsibilities of senior staff after an incident and details the requirement to meet the statutory duty. The person assigned to respond to the patient safety incident contacts the service user involved in an incident and/or their family or carer and offers to meet them as part of the learning response. Service user and families’ views are routinely recorded and considered in our learning responses.
If a Patient Safety Incident Investigation is undertaken, a copy of the report is shared in full with the service user or the family, and with HM Coroner and GP when a death has occurred. Signposting to suicide bereavement support and resources is included in the Duty of Candour letter sent to families.