Francis Report: Update and Response

Charlotte Leslie Excerpts

Wednesday 11th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I remember the good meeting I had with the hon. Lady and the former Secretary of State about that issue, which we are looking into. I hope she will understand that it would not be right for me to comment on that individual case, but let me say that it seems to exemplify exactly how things have gone wrong. That is why we need to look into it very carefully. We need to create a culture through which the management actually want to listen to their staff. I do not want managers to do so because of something I say; I want them to feel that they want it happen. It is as much about making sure that organisational priorities are correctly set from the centre, as it is about changing the law.

[Charlotte Leslie (Bristol North West) (Con)]

Culture change is a big tanker to turn, and senior managers under pressure from targets and headlines need significant sanctions and incentives to reveal rather than smother or downplay difficult truths. Doctors have the General Medical Council, although it needs improvement, but managers have no regulatory body to make them accountable. Will the Secretary of State consider doing something about that?

[Mr Hunt]

I thank my hon. Friend, whom I know has thought extremely hard about this issue. Indeed, we talked yesterday about getting the fit and proper persons test to work properly. It is still in the early stages, so it is difficult to assess whether it is having the impact we want. We certainly hope it will have some impact. There is an unfairness about the fact that a clinician as a chief executive of a hospital is accountable to the GMC as a doctor, whereas a chief executive who is not a doctor is not accountable. We actually want more doctors to become chief executives. On the whole, they do a really good job, and we should give further consideration to that.