NHS

Question

In the past three years, the NHS Constitution has been amended twice. In April 2013, the NHS Constitution was updated to reflect a number of key areas, including:

- patient involvement in discussions and decisions about their care and treatment, including end of life care;

- a duty of candour;

- the addition of a pledge to welcome feedback;

- integrated care, reflecting the needs and preferences of patients;

- new patient rights on complaints;

- amending the language to better reflect patient involvement in managing their own care;

- the addition of further staff rights, responsibilities and commitments; and

- ensuring patients will not have to share hospital sleeping accommodation with patients of the opposite sex.

Between February and April this year, the Department consulted on a package of further changes to the NHS Constitution. This included:

- reflecting recommendations made by Sir Robert Francis QC in his Inquiry Report on Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust;

- incorporating a series of fundamental standards, below which standards of care should never fall;

- highlighting the importance of transparency and accountability within the National Health Service;

- giving greater prominence to mental health, through reflecting a parity of esteem between mental and physical health problems; and

- making reference to the Armed Forces Covenant.

The updated NHS Constitution will be published alongside a revised version of the Handbook to the NHS Constitution on 27 July 2015. The Handbook outlines the contents of the NHS Constitution in further detail.