Professional duty to report concerns
Morecambe Bay Investigation · Report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation · Issued 3 March 2015 · Addressed to: GMC
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation
Professional regulatory bodies should clarify and reinforce the duty of professional staff to report concerns about clinical services, particularly where these relate to patient safety, and the mechanism to do so. Failure to report concerns should be regarded as a lapse from professional standards. Action: the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care.
Morecambe Bay Investigation, Report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation · 3 Mar 2015 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
- The GMC's Good Medical Practice and the NMC Code both require registrants to raise concerns about patient safety. The NMC Code (updated March 2015) requires nurses and midwives to "act without delay if you believe that there is a risk to patient safety" (NMC).
- The GMC and NMC published joint professional duty of candour guidance on 29 June 2015, reinforcing the duty to report concerns (Learning Not Blaming, Cm 9113, Department of Health, July 2015).
- Professor Sir Bruce Keogh was asked to review professional codes to ensure incentives to prevent cover-ups and promote learning (Learning Not Blaming, Cm 9113, Department of Health, July 2015).
Sources
Response — verbatim from government
●GMC
53. We accept this recommendation. A review of professional codes is under way.
54. Dr Kirkup found that many staff did not raise any concerns about standards of
care in the maternity units across Morecambe Bay, but perhaps even more troubling
is that where concerns were raised there was no evidence that they were properly
addressed or followed up.
55. The Professional codes of conduct for both the General Medical Council13 and
the Nursing and Midwifery Council14 require registrants to raise concerns and take
action where patient safety is at risk.
56. In addition, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh has been asked to review the
professional codes of practice of doctors, nurses and midwives and to ensure that
the right incentives are in place to prevent people from covering up, instead of
reporting and learning from mistakes. This work is being conducted in collaboration
with key stakeholders, including the Professional Standards Authority, the General
Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and Health Education England.
The final report is expected later this year.
National standards: 28-29
GMC · 16 Jul 2015 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
- 31 Dec 2015 Professional bodies reinforced duty to raise concerns. GMC and NMC guidance updated on whistleblowing duties. Source →
Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.
How this page is built
Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.
This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.