What is the Duty of Candour and is it being applied?

Written by Rebecca Brisley | Medical Negligence Team |15 December 2023

What is the Duty of Candour?

This is a statutory duty that applies to all health and care professionals to be open and honest with patients and people in their care when something goes wrong with their treatment.

Full guidance has been issued by the Nursing and Midwifery Council in collaboration with the General Medical Council: https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/nmc-publications/openness-and-honesty-professional-duty-of-candour.pdf

Essentially, the duty requires health professionals to fully inform patients about all aspects of their care, including when things have gone wrong.  Whilst the guidance is not intended for circumstances where a patient’s condition deteriorates due to the natural progression of their illness, it does apply when a patient’s care has gone wrong and they suffer harm or distress as a result.

Once there has been a realization that something has gone wrong, it is normally appropriate for the lead clinician to speak to the patient or their loved ones as soon as possible after they have realized that something has gone wrong.

An apology in these circumstances is often appropriate, but is not an admission of any legal liability.  Saying sorry is simply the right thing to do.

Is the Duty of Candour being applied?

Honestly, who really knows? Once the conversation and apology has taken place this should be recorded in the patient’s clinical record, but I suspect that many medical negligence lawyers will be able to count on one hand the number of times that they have seen reference to such a conversation and apology within their client’s medical records.

Of course, there could well be many reasons for this, not least that in a large multidisciplinary team of medical professionals it may well not be clear to one discipline that there has been wrongdoing by one of their medical counterparts.  Or, perhaps, thinking about a scenario where an ambulance service has caused a delay in conveying a patient to hospital and the delay has caused a worsening of their condition - once the patient has been admitted to the hospital, there is then no contact with the ambulance service which makes a Duty of Candor conversation difficult as they will often not be able to follow a patient’s journey through the hospital.

That being said, many medical negligence lawyers will also recognise that an apology often goes a long way and many patients who enquire about a potential claim will be motivated by the need to get answers about what has happened and why, and an apology. Often, an apology will go a long way in easing a patient’s psychological discomfort.

If you are concerned about parts of your care, particularly if you feel that things have gone wrong, it might well be worth asking whether a Duty of Candour conversation is necessary.

For more information and to discuss your concerns with an experienced Medical Negligence lawyer, please get in touch with us here.