GOOD AFTERNOON and welcome to my last patient safety weekly before summer recess but we will be back in September when we have a new Prime Minister. We discuss that and the Infected Blood Public Inquiry which I gave evidence to yesterday. Also we consider the latest select committee report into workforce issues which was, frankly, a frustrated tirade;  a harrowing report from ITV’s excellent Paul Brand on the state of the NHS and the government’s response to our report into the treatment of people with autism and/or learning disabilities.

INFECTED BLOOD SCANDAL Yesterday I gave evidence to the public inquiry that Theresa May and I announced in July 2017 that is looking at the horrific circumstances in which thousands of people (mainly haemophiliacs) were given infected blood in the 1970s and 1980s which meant they contracted HIV and Hep C. I did not hold back saying there was an institutional closing of ranks and a failure of democracy because although it now seems clear that a deliberate decision was taken to play Russian Roulette with people’s lives the establishment covered it up for decades. You can watch most of it here and read the full transcript here. It was personal for me because when I was a backbench newly elected MP a constituent (and a lovely man) called Mike Dorricott came to see me as one of those infected. Neither of us knew I would become Health Secretary. Although I did eventually persuade Theresa May to set up a public inquiry it was not before Mike died. Thousands of others are in the same boat with justice coming much, much too late. As the lead QC pointed out these are overlaps with the issues raised in my book Zero. I’ll be particularly interested in what the inquiry has to say on reforming the system so that we don’t see the widespread institutional closing of ranks mentioned above.

WORKFORCE CRISIS AND PATIENT SAFETY Earlier this week the Select Committee published its stinging report into NHS and social care workforce describing it as the “greatest workforce crisis” in their history. I was on the Today programme here (0713) LBC here and Sky News here talking about the report.  It criticises the government’s refusal to publish meaningful workforce planning and calls for an increase in the number of medical school places from around 9,500 per year to 14,500 per year. To help in the immediate instance it also recommended the introduction of a “green list” of countries with reputable medical training and education whose doctors are given an automatic right to practice here in the UK. On social care it calls for an externally validated care certificate which is transferable between social care providers and between social care and the NHS. There are a whole host of other recommendations and the government now has two months to respond - and the big question is whether either Prime Ministerial candidate will engage enough with NHS issues to do so. So far we have heard much more on the NHS from Rishi Sunak, who I am supporting, than Liz Truss and I do have a concern that without the NHS and Social Care Levy (which she would scrap) we will find it difficult to get the resources going into the system that we need. Jane Dacre’s excellent independent panel, commissioned by the Select Committee to Ofsted-rate the government on its workforce promises, has unsurprisingly given them an ‘inadequate’ so there is something for our next PM to cut his or her teeth on.

AUTISM AND LEARNING DISABILITY The government has responded to the Committee report into the treatment of people with autism and/or learning disabilities. They accept most of our recommendations at least in part and will be using their reforms to the Mental Health Act to implement them. It was a more thoughtful response than we normally get but they do reject the Trieste model which bans the long term admission of non-dangerous patients. My question would be if you are rejecting a radical option that has worked, why are you confident that a ‘one more heave’ approach will work this time when it has failed so many times before (including under me)?

ITV HORROR REPORT This makes uncomfortable watching but I urge everyone who wants to know how the NHS is currently coping to watch Paul Brand’s hard-hitting report available here. It shows patients waiting on trolleys in corridors for days and brings home the human cost of the crisis in the ambulance service. You can also read Polly Toynbee’s polemic on the NHS here - I don’t always agree with Polly (and no doubt she would say the same about me) but do salute her for raising the alarm on this issue.

SOCIAL CARE TRAILBLAZER Oxfordshire has joined five other local authorities in introducing trials of the new social care charging reform system that will see the lifetime cap of £86,000 introduced. These local authorities will help inform others when the reforms are rolled out more broadly next year. Something at least is moving in social care - but caps aren’t going to do it on their own are they?

COVID LATEST. Covid cases continue to creep upwards with the ONS reporting that 1 in 17 people in England in the week ending 13th July had the virus. The dashboard data for the last 7 days is looking better though cases have decreased by 35% and hospitalisations are down by 16%. So whisper it quietly but we may have passed the peak.

THE PLUG Thank you to those who came to the launch of Zero last week which was kindly hosted by the King’s Fund. It helped to spread the word about patient safety and you can too -  just forwarding this email to a friend and get them to sign up here. Have a wonderful summer and see you in September.

Jeremy Hunt