Putting the NHS’s health regulatory, governance, patient safety house in order

John Tingle, Associate Professor, Birmingham Law School, discusses recent reports into health regulation, governance, patient safety and clinical negligence.

Professor John Tingle

The importance of high-quality health regulation, governance, patient safety can never be overstated. Those that access the NHS need to be confident that they will be treated well and that patient safety problems will not occur. However, some degree of error is inevitable in health care treatment because of its fundamental nature. Health care services are delivered personally by human beings who are fallible. Health care treatment can involve complex equipment, drugs, care processes. The best we can hope to achieve is to successfully manage clinical risk. Our health regulatory and governance system helps achieve this. Good patient safety policies and practices are an intrinsic part of the NHS health regulatory and governance framework.