Patient Safety Review

Debate between James Naish and Preet Kaur Gill

Monday 6th July 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Preet Kaur Gill)]

I thank the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin) for securing this important debate. He has long taken a serious interest in patient safety, including in the importance of independent investigation. I recognise the strength and sincerity of the points that he has raised and will try to answer all of his questions.

At the heart of this debate is a simple question: when patients and families tell us something has gone wrong, does the system listen and learn, and, most importantly, does it change? Patients do not judge the system by the number of reports published, the number of organisations involved, or the number of recommendations written; they judge it by whether care becomes safer. For too long, across too many parts of the system, we have seen the same pattern: harm happens; a review follows; lessons are identified; but the change patients were promised does not always follow quickly enough. This Government are determined to change that.

Dr Penny Dash’s review was commissioned to consider whether the current landscape of organisations provides effective leadership, listening and regulation on patient safety and wider quality of care, and whether a different approach could deliver better outcomes for patients.

[James Naish]

I rise to intervene before the Minister goes down the HSSIB route, which I completely understand is the focus of the debate today. I want to put on record once more the concerns about Healthwatch and its abolition. I know there is a strong desire to see independent patient voice maintained outside the system; of course, Healthwatch was established due to issues within health structures, including, notably, the Mid Staffordshire scandal.

[Preet Kaur Gill]

I thank my hon. Friend for putting that on the record. He will know that we are in Committee stage of the Health Bill and there will later be the opportunity to debate this issue on the Floor of the House.