Nuffield Health response to the CHPI report 'Patient Safety in private hospitals'

David Mobbs, Nuffield Health Group Chief Executive, said: 

“Nuffield Health welcomes any dialogue that supports access to more transparent and reliable data, and as an organisation we are fully in support of producing comparable performance data at hospital and Consultant level so that patients can make informed decisions about their treatment.

We are extremely disappointed about the negative conclusions that the CHPI report draws and the inference throughout the report that, in the absence of similar information to the NHS, there must be increased risk. Inspections of Nuffield Health hospitals by the CQC, including reviews of the quality systems, are all up to date and there are no issues, nor enforcement actions.  

Nuffield Health would have been happy to share data with the CHPI to support this report had they asked for it.  Indeed we would welcome the opportunity for follow-up discussions with any organisation in order to move the information transparency agenda forward.  

We have been actively seeking access to reporting via the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS), and this is still denied. Therefore, we are unable to report through this mechanism at this time. We trust that this report will expedite the changes required in the system.   

We will be undertaking a thorough review of the methodology and conclusions of this report.  We look forward to working with any organisation interested in seeking to promote transparency, in addition to the existing work we are already undertaking with the CQC and PHIN on the transparency agenda.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. Nuffield Health has responded to all the recent consultations on the new standards, reporting and monitoring being put in place by CQC and are also represented at the External Advisory Group to CQC.

Through these processes we are addressing the recommendation made in respect to reporting. It is evident from the new legislation on ‘False and Misleading Information’ and ‘Duty of Candour’ that the reporting in the NHS has required improvement. 

Nuffield Health produces an annual quality report which is available to the public and which supports transparency and openness – this has been in place since 2007.  We are also members of the Private Health Information Network (PHIN) which allows the public to compare private health providers, including for some NHS procedures.

Nuffield Health has operated a ‘ward to board to ward’ governance structure similar to the NHS for many years, and this has been assessed by the NHS Litigation Authority. Nuffield Health is the only independent provider to hold the highest level of NHSLA accreditation  - level 3.

Nuffield Health has adopted the ‘NHS Healthy Board’ structure and has a board level quality governance committee which follows the NHS Monitor quality governance framework, including reporting on serious events, deaths, avoidable infections and where possible comparing these with NHS information.  We have been actively seeking for many years for access to reporting via the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) and this is still denied and therefore we are unable to report through this mechanism at this time.  

http://www.nuffieldhealth.com/about-us/financial-reports

2. For more information please contact the press office on 01372 426707 or email Elaine.towell@nuffieldhealth.com  / PressOffice@nuffieldhealth.com 

3. Nuffield Health is one of the leading not-for-profit healthcare organisations in the UK, we have provided health services for over 50 years. We are independent of Government, have no shareholders and all surplus finance is reinvested to improve our facilities or provide public health education. We provide access to more than 10,000 health experts through our 31 hospitals, 74 fitness & wellbeing centres and 202 corporate facilities to help people get healthy, and stay healthy. 

Last updated Thursday 10 March 2016

First published on Wednesday 20 August 2014