RCS responds to Keogh mortality review

‘This important review has highlighted a disturbing breakdown in patient safety and good care within hospitals which cannot be allowed to continue. Patients being left for too long on trolleys, moved around hospitals endlessly and wards seeing very low levels of proper clinical cover are all unacceptable. So too is a health system where there is not a culture of openness or professionalism. It is right that the Sir Bruce Keogh and the review teams have highlighted such abysmal care and drawn from them some common themes which must be tackled.

It is particularly worrying that preventable mistakes are still happening in surgery, no matter how rare. Never should mean never and avoiding these incidents must be the priority of every surgeon.

In order to ensure high quality care is always delivered to patients, we must immediately look at how we can secure the right levels of staff and support services to consistently provide seven days a week care. To end an ‘island mentality’, managers and clinicians in every hospital must adopt clinical and management best practice to raise standards of care for their patients.’

Notes to editors

For more information, please contact the RCS press office on:

• 020 7869 6047/ 6052
• communications@rcseng.ac.uk
• Out-of hours: 07966 486 832
• The Royal College of Surgeons of England is committed to enabling surgeons to achieve and maintain the highest standards of surgical practice and patient care. Registered charity number: 212808