2. Urgent Question: Royal Gwent Hospital

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:21 pm on 13 December 2016.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Steffan Lewis Steffan Lewis Plaid Cymru 2:21, 13 December 2016

I want to declare an interest, that my wife is employed by the NHS. The Cabinet Secretary mentioned in his previous answer the review by the Care Quality Commission in England that found that there is a failure there to learn from patient deaths and other serious errors in the system. That prevents and inhibits processes being put in place in the future, because there isn’t the culture of sharing, not just best practice, but worst practice, actually, because much more can be learnt, sometimes, from when things go wrong. I’m concerned that the public service ombudsman’s report on the failings at the Gwent has some parallels with the report from the quality care commission in England—that similar issues and similar mistakes are being repeated, often repeated in silos, with patient care suffering. Even the health board’s own investigations are identified as failing to highlight the root problems when they arise. So, what assurances can the Cabinet Secretary give patients in the Aneurin Bevan area in particular that there are efforts in place to standardise and improve the investigatory process into patient deaths and other significant mistakes in the NHS system, to make sure that those mistakes are not repeated over and over again?