The House of Commons was back for the first day following Summer recess and within an hour, Winchester and Chandler's Ford's MP was on his feet welcoming a statutory judge-led inquiry in the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Following calls by hundreds of leading figures in health and social care, including Steve Brine MP in his capacity as Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, the Government announced this week that the inquiry would be judge-led - appointing Lady Justice Thirlwall.
During a statement in the House, Steve said : "I place on record my sympathy to the families, who have conducted themselves with the utmost dignity throughout this process and who remain in my thoughts and prayers as well. I welcome the judge-led statutory inquiry that my right hon. Friend has announced. It is the right thing to do, as are the phases of the inquiry, which prevent stuff from taking too long to move fast."
The MP went on to ask "As that work moves forward, and the debate rightly continues to touch on how we regulate managers working in the NHS, and remove them, I ask that Ministers remain alert to any “us and them” thinking between managers and clinicians? Surely any successful hospital trust is one team working together, so that defensive medicine is all but impossible."
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Steve Barclay MP, responded : "I very much agree with the Chair of the Select Committee on the need for a one-team approach, and on looking at how we encourage more clinicians into management roles. We need to be clear-eyed that often some of those in management positions were already regulated, because they were in medical or nursing regulatory positions, but it is important that we consider the right approach to ensure accountability for the families. That is why NHS England will look at this further."
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