Final Report > Chapter 26: The Safety of Care > Overcoming the barriers to openness > Confidentiality

Confidentiality

40 There may be circumstances in which healthcare professionals will only report a sentinel event if guaranteed confidentiality, specifically that they will not be identified or identifiable as the source of the report. Fear of recrimination from colleagues may be one such circumstance. For this reason, the option of reporting in confidence must exist. Clearly, once a sentinel event is reported, it will then be the job of the relevant executive director of the trust and the chief executive to take appropriate action.

41 Confidentiality can be a valuable device in reassuring employees and encouraging the reporting of sentinel events. Moreover, if attempts were made to abuse confidentiality by using it as a cloak to hide wrongdoing, other healthcare professionals could (and would) speak up. The trust chief executive in the exercise of their statutory duty to ensure the quality of care, would have to investigate and act. In this context we would add that, were any healthcare professional to seek to prevent the employer from taking any action by consistently reporting their own errors within the required time, thereby avoiding disciplinary action, the employer would have the option of referring the professional to, in the case of doctors, the National Clinical Assessment Authority. Similar systems, providing the opportunity for professional assessment and, where necessary, retraining should be put in place for all other healthcare professionals. This would not constitute disciplinary action; it would, however, protect the safety of patients.