150. Memorandum submitted by the National
Patient Safety Agency
The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) supports
the proposals in the draft Bill since we believe that the overall
impact will help to further the agenda to improve patient safety
in the NHS. The proposed legislation will raise the profile of
risk management at Board level and will set out clearly that risks
must be managed corporately, in a responsible way.
Our one area of concern is that large organisations
with complex management structures, who have previously proved
difficult to prosecute since a single "directing" mind
cannot be identified, may in future be inclined to ensure that
one person is blamed to avoid corporate responsibility. If this
were to happen it would prevent people speaking up when things
go wrong and has been proved in many industries such as aviation,
nuclear and North Sea oil to halt progress to safety improvement.
Any proposals would need to ensure this did not occur.
14 June 2005
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