Meeting of the Parliament 01 December 2015
I am not aware of that happening. If the member has evidence of that happening, I am happy to look into it. Obviously, I hope that patients would discuss their smoking with their doctors or consultants, perhaps even before they are due to have an operation. Patients who go into hospital are given help to quit as soon as they know what the situation is in the hospital grounds.
I move to the duty of candour. The provision of health and social care services is closely associated with risk, and unintended or unexpected events that result in harm sometimes happen. That does not mean that we should not be honest and open when harm occurs and that we should not seek to learn and improve from such incidents. Being candid promotes a learning culture and accountability for safer systems, better engages staff in improvement work, and engenders greater trust among patients and service users. When there has been harm, people want to be told honestly what happened, to be supported, to be informed of what will be done, and to know what actions will be taken to prevent what happened from happening again.
That is why we have included the duty of candour provisions in part 2 of the bill. There will be a duty on organisations that provide health and social care services to follow a duty of candour procedure where there has been an incident of physical or psychological harm. That will provide a further dimension to the role of organisations to support continuous improvements in the quality and safety culture across Scotland’s health and care services.
That is one of a series of actions that should form part of organisational focus on and commitment to learning and improvement. The duty of candour will apply to a wide range of health and care services across Scotland. Because it is an organisational duty, it will not apply to individuals who provide services.
It might be helpful if I explain the key steps of the duty that will be set out in the regulations that will be made using the powers in the bill. When an organisation becomes aware that there has been an adverse event resulting in harm, it must ensure that those affected are notified that it has happened. An account of the facts of what happened should be provided. Organisations must offer support to the person who has been harmed, and to the relatives and staff who have been involved with the event. Those who have been affected must be informed of the further steps to be taken to review the event and must be given the opportunity to have their questions considered by the review process. The organisation must also provide an apology and must confirm all the actions taken in a written record, the contents of which will inform the regular public reports of disclosable events and organisational response to them.