A Description of the Francis Report
The Francis Report
The Francis Report was an investigation made on a hospital due to the poor standards of care given to several patients. On February 6th 2013 Robert Francis stated that “…they put corporate self-interest first and cost control ahead of their safety” so in the eyes of Francis, the hospital didn’t put patients first and this is what prompted them Prime Minister for a review of the NHS complaints handling system.
The Francis Report found that 1200 people died of unnecessary illnesses, suggesting that they could’ve been prevented. The care that was investigated was found to be very poor, causing patients wounds to either not get any better or even get a lot worse. For instance a dirty dressing was found to be used causing the patients cut to get infected. However the report, put forward by Robert Francis, did find that there was some good standard of care but it was just not put to good practice. From this, the government recommended that this care was extended to all patients and that all skills were met at the appropriate standard.
The Francis Report also investigated the complaints system, this was to see how the NHS could improve without having a trial run at the government’s expense. The complaints led to 290 recommendations due to finding out that the staff wasn’t striving to improve and that they “allowed unacceptable practice to persist”. This suggests that devastating consequences occurred for the patient, their families and friends because of improper care. From this the recommendations were that all individual complaints are to be taken seriously and that organisations get involved if complaints are not being handled correctly (e.g. Health Watch)
Another aspect that was discovered due to the Francis Report was that there was no support for whistle blowers. This implies that employees noticed that the NHS had poor standards of care but they weren’t being supported and even pressured into keeping quiet. This is also a worry for the NHS due
The Francis Report was an investigation made on a hospital due to the poor standards of care given to several patients. On February 6th 2013 Robert Francis stated that “…they put corporate self-interest first and cost control ahead of their safety” so in the eyes of Francis, the hospital didn’t put patients first and this is what prompted them Prime Minister for a review of the NHS complaints handling system.
The Francis Report found that 1200 people died of unnecessary illnesses, suggesting that they could’ve been prevented. The care that was investigated was found to be very poor, causing patients wounds to either not get any better or even get a lot worse. For instance a dirty dressing was found to be used causing the patients cut to get infected. However the report, put forward by Robert Francis, did find that there was some good standard of care but it was just not put to good practice. From this, the government recommended that this care was extended to all patients and that all skills were met at the appropriate standard.
The Francis Report also investigated the complaints system, this was to see how the NHS could improve without having a trial run at the government’s expense. The complaints led to 290 recommendations due to finding out that the staff wasn’t striving to improve and that they “allowed unacceptable practice to persist”. This suggests that devastating consequences occurred for the patient, their families and friends because of improper care. From this the recommendations were that all individual complaints are to be taken seriously and that organisations get involved if complaints are not being handled correctly (e.g. Health Watch)
Another aspect that was discovered due to the Francis Report was that there was no support for whistle blowers. This implies that employees noticed that the NHS had poor standards of care but they weren’t being supported and even pressured into keeping quiet. This is also a worry for the NHS due