NHS 'cover-up culture' to be tackled with fines: Hospitals that give misleading data on mortality rates face punishment in bid to prevent repeat of Mid-Staffordshire scandal
Hospitals that give false information about death rates will face unlimited fines under new powers aimed at preventing another Mid-Staffordshire-style health scandal.
Care minister Norman Lamb said the new criminal offence would help end a "cover-up culture" in the NHS. He called it a legacy of the campaign fought by those who suffered the "horrors" of failings at Stafford hospital and claimed it would deter health chiefs from giving false or misleading mortality statistics.
The powers were unveiled on Friday as part of a wider package of reforms aimed at tightening care quality safeguards in the NHS and establishing new guarantees on individuals' eligibility for social care support from local authorities. The care bill also sets out proposals for a cap on the amount people will have to pay for social care. A £72,000 limit on costs will be introduced in 2016 and the threshold for financial assistance will be extended from £23,250 to £118,000 at the same time.
Lamb said it would provide protection against "astronomic care costs", prevent people being forced to sell their homes to pay to be looked after, and act as an incentive for people to plan and save for their futures.
But Labour said the new package of social care measures were not bold enough, and would do little to address the financial crisis in local authority social care departments.
The bill enables Monitor, the NHS financial regulator, to intervene if the chief inspector of hospitals identifies problems with the quality of care. It will also be able, for the first time, to put a foundation trust into administration on clinical grounds if the Care Quality Commission requires it.
Lamb said: "The chief inspector of hospitals, if he spots poor care, will be able to serve a notice which will ultimately end up, if nothing is done to address it, with the potential for the board or individual members to be removed and ultimately for the hospital trust to be put into administration."
The offence of giving false information will apply to all providers of NHS secondary care, including private firms, and will initially be restricted to the treatment of mortality data. It will apply to organisations rather than individuals.
Asked whether the government's measures would prevent another Mid Staffs, Lamb said the package "achieves an awful lot in protecting us from anything like that happening again".
The bill promises new national eligibility criteria to determine whether people qualify for state-funded social care support. This will replace the current "postcode lottery" where thresholds for help with care needs vary between local authority areas.
It promises that people will be able to carry their assessment for care support with them if they move to another area, for example to be closer to family or change job. For the first time carers will have a right to receive financial support themselves if they have eligible needs.
Liz Kendall, the shadow minister for care and older people, said on its own the bill would not tackle the crisis engulfing social care. "New rights to services and support risk being meaningless as council care budgets are cut to the bone."
Earlier this week, local authority social care chiefs revealed that they had seen adult social care spending shrink by 20% over the past three years and predicted that more people would be denied social care support over the next two years. The Guardian
Hospitals that give false information about death rates will face unlimited fines under new powers aimed at preventing another Mid-Staffordshire-style health scandal.
Care minister Norman Lamb said the new criminal offence would help end a "cover-up culture" in the NHS. He called it a legacy of the campaign fought by those who suffered the "horrors" of failings at Stafford hospital and claimed it would deter health chiefs from giving false or misleading mortality statistics.
The powers were unveiled on Friday as part of a wider package of reforms aimed at tightening care quality safeguards in the NHS and establishing new guarantees on individuals' eligibility for social care support from local authorities. The care bill also sets out proposals for a cap on the amount people will have to pay for social care. A £72,000 limit on costs will be introduced in 2016 and the threshold for financial assistance will be extended from £23,250 to £118,000 at the same time.
Lamb said it would provide protection against "astronomic care costs", prevent people being forced to sell their homes to pay to be looked after, and act as an incentive for people to plan and save for their futures.
But Labour said the new package of social care measures were not bold enough, and would do little to address the financial crisis in local authority social care departments.
The bill enables Monitor, the NHS financial regulator, to intervene if the chief inspector of hospitals identifies problems with the quality of care. It will also be able, for the first time, to put a foundation trust into administration on clinical grounds if the Care Quality Commission requires it.
Lamb said: "The chief inspector of hospitals, if he spots poor care, will be able to serve a notice which will ultimately end up, if nothing is done to address it, with the potential for the board or individual members to be removed and ultimately for the hospital trust to be put into administration."
The offence of giving false information will apply to all providers of NHS secondary care, including private firms, and will initially be restricted to the treatment of mortality data. It will apply to organisations rather than individuals.
Asked whether the government's measures would prevent another Mid Staffs, Lamb said the package "achieves an awful lot in protecting us from anything like that happening again".
The bill promises new national eligibility criteria to determine whether people qualify for state-funded social care support. This will replace the current "postcode lottery" where thresholds for help with care needs vary between local authority areas.
It promises that people will be able to carry their assessment for care support with them if they move to another area, for example to be closer to family or change job. For the first time carers will have a right to receive financial support themselves if they have eligible needs.
Liz Kendall, the shadow minister for care and older people, said on its own the bill would not tackle the crisis engulfing social care. "New rights to services and support risk being meaningless as council care budgets are cut to the bone."
Earlier this week, local authority social care chiefs revealed that they had seen adult social care spending shrink by 20% over the past three years and predicted that more people would be denied social care support over the next two years. The Guardian
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