The Department of Health has today published the report of the ‘Francis Working Group’, which has reviewed all 290 of the recommendations from the public inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.
The Francis Working Group was established by the Minister for Health David Anderson MHK in May 2013 and independently chaired by Mr Mike Coleman MLC. The group was tasked to determine which recommendations arising from the public inquiry were applicable to the Island’s Health Service.
Of Francis’ 290 recommendations, the working group determined that 233 were either fully applicable or that the principles or practice of the recommendation should be considered. The remaining 57 were found not to be applicable locally because these concerned aspects of the NHS in England that have no relevance to the Island’s Health Service; for example the process by which hospitals in England seek Foundation Trust status, of which there is no Manx equivalent.
Minister Anderson said:
'The publication of the Francis Report represented a watershed moment for the NHS. In commissioning a local review of the inquiry’s findings, I wanted to ensure that the Island’s Health Service does everything possible to learn from events at Mid Staffs and that the Department strives to put in place appropriate measures to enhance patient safety from the lessons learned.
'I very much welcome the completion of this comprehensive report by the working group. They have not only had to review the 290 recommendations within the original Francis Report, but have had to do so in the Isle of Man context. This has made a significant piece of work all the more complex given the differences in size and structure of our NHS when compared to that of England. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the working group and to Mr Coleman for agreeing to be its Chair. I have now requested that all areas of the Department are made aware of the working group’s report and its recommendations. I have also asked that consideration be given to implementation timetables and the required resources in relation to implementing the recommendations.'
The document containing the findings of the public inquiry is commonly referred to as ‘The Francis Report’ and gets its name from the inquiry’s Chair, Robert Francis QC. The final report was published on 6 February 2013 and ran to three volumes at over 1,700 pages.
The Minister added:
'Many of the recommendations within the Francis Report are wide ranging and detailed. As I’m sure will also be the case in the English NHS, it will take considerable time to develop and embed many of them. It’s clear from the size, scope and variety of the recommendations that implementation will move at different speeds.'
A copy of the report is available for download.
