| Pending confirmation in 24 hours
| Pending confirmation in 24 hours
The trigger for duty of candour can be feedback or a complaint, a significant event, or a disclosure
under whistleblowing.
Duty of candour is triggered if there is harm
Eg the death of a person
Permanent visual disability
Increase in a person’s treatment
Changes to the structure of their eye
Shortening of life
An impairment of vision lasting up to 28 days
Pain or psychological harm lasting up to 28 days
Apologising is an important part of duty of candour. An apology is a statement of sorrow or regret in
respect of the unintended or unexpected event. Sometimes simply acknowledging the event will be
helpful to the person or their family.
An apology does not amount to an admission of negligence or a breach of statutory duty.
When a duty of candour event occurs and a meeting with the patient is organised, staff should feel
supported in being able to manage the meeting and be aware of the following:
The apology should not be delayed.
What matters to person should be recorded.
Keeping person focus of meeting and not straying into organisational matters
The apology should not question the extent of the harm suffered by the affected person
Include some phrases like ‘I’m sorry this has happened to you and I’m going to find out what
went wrong and get back to you.
The process of saying sorry will involve:
Reflecting – stop and think about the situation
Regret – giving a sincere and meaningful apology
Reason – if you know what happened explain it, if not say you will find out
Remedy – explain what you are going to do to ensure it won’t happen again
This organisation will report annually the number and nature of incidents. These will be
reported annually. This report will be situated at www.lahunter.co.uk
There will also be recording of the changes to procedures or practice as a result of the incident and the
support given to staff.
Unexpected or Unintended incidents April 2023 – April 2024
No identified incidents were reported within this period
