John Mayberry & Affifa Farrukh on the sweeping statutory powers of the Health Services Safety Investigation Body
The NHS is plagued by failures, leading to public inquiries and potential lawsuits for clinical negligence amounting to an annual bill of £3bn, with potential future liabilities amounting to as much as £60bn. The Public Accounts Committee has recently pointed out that this represents the second-largest provision on the government’s balance sheet, after nuclear decommissioning.
This combination of concerns over maternity care, the treatment of vulnerable young people and the elderly, together with an exponential growth in negligence claims, has led to an enthusiasm in government circles for the creation of a system which would bring to the NHS those values that have permeated the air industry and are both implemented and monitored through the Civil Aviation Authority. The three key features have been to maintain high standards; prevent accidents; and protect the public.
No one would dispute that the NHS should also have at its core these values. Consequently, there was widespread support among politicians for the introduction
