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Review on 'zero harm' culture in NHS is due after Stafford Hospital scandal

A major review sparked by the Stafford Hospital scandal which aims to introduce a 'zero-harm culture' in the NHS was being published today.

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Professor Don Berwick, a world expert in patient safety, was tasked by Prime Minister David Cameron with conducting a root-and-branch safety review of English hospitals after revelations of appalling standards of care emerged during the Francis Inquiry.

Mr Cameron believes the scandal at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, where hundreds more people died than would normally have been expected, should act as a catalyst to drive improvements in the health service.

It comes after plans were outlined last week to plough up to £65 million into transforming hospitals in Wolverhampton, Walsall and Cannock Chase, under plans for a shake-up of healthcare in the Midlands that will strip services from Stafford.

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust will be axed if the proposals are rubber-stamped by health secretary Jeremy Hunt by the end of the year.

Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust will take over the running of Cannock Chase, with the University Hospital of North Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent handed control of Stafford.

Walsall Manor is also looking to invest £6m in improved maternity services and is in negotiations with Wolverhampton over running services at Cannock.

A former adviser to US president Barack Obama, Prof Berwick has said he believes the NHS could offer the safest healthcare in the world. The review, involving a team of experts from the UK and US, has examined why some patients needlessly suffer or die in hospital because of errors.

One basic element of creating a zero-harm culture includes checklists before surgery with patients giving their name before treatment.

Prof Berwick founded the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston which conducted an earlier internal review for the NHS.

In March, Prof Berwick said he would recommend how the NHS could take 'serious and profound' action to improve safety.

He said: "Assuring patient safety and high quality care is never automatic. It requires the constant attention of leaders and continual support to the workforce."

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