Spire apologises for its ‘duty of candour’ failings
Spire Healthcare issued the following statement after pleading guilty to failing to comply with its Duty of Candour obligations.
This was as a result of a delay in notifying four patients of concerns regarding their care in 2017-18, for which it was fined £5,000: click here to see story.
Group clinical director Alison Dickinson said: ‘We regret that we missed opportunities to act promptly to inform four patients of failings in the care provided by their consultant, MW, who held practising privileges at Spire Leeds until his suspension in April 2018.
Alison Dickinson
‘We investigated those incidents, apologised to the four patients, and offered each of them the opportunity to discuss their concerns, but we fully accept that we did not do this as promptly as we should have done.
‘We fell short of the requirements regarding Duty of Candour as well as the high standards that we set for ourselves and that patients should be able to expect from us. We apologise again today (29/4/21) to those four patients for the delay in notifying them and for the care they received in 2017-18.
‘We have reflected carefully on the lessons we can learn and we have invested significantly in training and strengthened our systems in our hospitals for ensuring that patients are informed when something goes wrong, in a transparent and timely way.
‘We are pleased that the Care Quality Commission recognised these improvements in the rating of Spire Leeds as “Good”, following their inspection in March 2020.
‘We will continue to strive to be open and honest with patients in everything we do.’