Follow up of patients
Mid Staffs Inquiry · Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry · Issued 6 February 2013 · Addressed to: Healthcare providers
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation
A proactive system for following up patients shortly after discharge would not only be good "customer service", it would probably provide a wider range of responses and feedback on their care.
Mid Staffs Inquiry, Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry · 6 Feb 2013 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
- There is no national mandatory requirement for hospitals to contact patients after discharge to check on outcomes or experience. Government hospital discharge guidance focuses on the discharge process itself, including needs assessment and transfer of care, but does not mandate post-discharge follow-up contact by the discharging hospital (Hospital Discharge and Community Support Guidance, DHSC, 2022).
- Some trusts operate post-discharge phone call schemes as local good practice — for example, 24-hour post-discharge phone calls — but these are voluntary initiatives, not national requirements. NHS England has published case studies of such schemes to encourage adoption (NHS England, Post-Discharge Phone Calls Case Study).
- Healthwatch, in its November 2023 position on safe hospital discharge, called for "new minimum standards on post-discharge contact times to be included in updated guidance," indicating that such standards do not currently exist (Healthwatch, Our Position on Safe Hospital Discharge, November 2023).
- The Friends and Family Test captures some post-discharge feedback, but this is a general experience survey rather than the proactive clinical follow-up system Francis recommended to check patient wellbeing and identify problems after discharge.
Response — verbatim from government
●Department of Health and Social Care
The government published "Hard Truths: the Journey to Putting Patients First" (Cm 8777) on 19 November 2013, responding to all 290 recommendations of the Francis Report. This followed an initial response "Patients First and Foremost" in March 2013. Key reforms included a new Chief Inspector of Hospitals, strengthened Care Quality Commission inspection regime, a statutory duty of candour, and the fit and proper person test for NHS directors. Volume 2 (Cm 8754) contains the government's detailed responses to each of the 290 recommendations. See: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7cd486ed915d63cc65d167/34658_Cm_8777_Vol_1_accessible.pdf
Department of Health and Social Care · 19 Nov 2013 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
- 6 Feb 2026 · NHS providers Francis recommended systematic follow-up of patients after discharge. NHS trusts have improved discharge planning and some follow-up mechanisms exist. However, pressures on community and primary care services mean systematic post-discharge follow-up remains inconsistent, particularly for elderly patients -- the group most at risk in the Mid Staffs scandal. View source → Reasonable Progress
- 6 Feb 2023 · Academic Review - Ten Years After Francis Research published 2023 marking ten years since the Francis Report found mixed results. Structural and legislative changes largely delivered (duty of candour, FPPR, CQC overhaul, revalidation, Freedom to Speak Up Guardians). However, cultural change not fully embedded; understaffing, fear of speaking up, and poor complaint handling persist in parts of the NHS. View source → Reasonable Progress
- 11 Feb 2015 · UK Government - Culture Change in the NHS Government published "Culture Change in the NHS" (Cm 9009) reporting progress on all 290 recommendations. Key achievements: 19 hospitals placed in special measures; those trusts recruited 109 additional doctors and 1,805 additional nurses; 129 board-level changes made; excess avoidable deaths fell by 450 in less than a year. View source → Good Progress
- 19 Nov 2013 · UK Government - Hard Truths Vol 1 & 2 Government published "Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First" (Cm 8777) in two volumes. Vol 1 set out new actions; Vol 2 provided detailed response to each of the 290 recommendations. Approximately 204 of 290 recommendations were fully accepted. View source → Good Progress
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.