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Duty of Candour

Organisations that provide health, care and social work services need to be able to learn effectively from what goes well and from what goes wrong. These are opportunities to improve the safety and quality of services.

If something goes wrong with your treatment or care, health and social care organisations have a duty to you or the person acting on your behalf to:

– apologise

– be open and honest

– involve you in a review of what happened

– let you know how they will learn from what has happened

This is called ‘Duty of Candour‘ and is a legal obligation for health and social care providers.

We follow the duty of candour procedure as laid out here in the Scottish Government’s guidance. We recognise that when unexpected or unintended incidents occur during the provision of treatment or care, openness and transparency is fundamental. This promotes a culture of learning and continuous improvement.

We will:

– Have a culture of openness and honesty at all levels

– Inform patients or their families in a timely manner when safety incidents have occurred which may affect them

– Fully investigate the incident

– Invite patients or their families to a meeting to discuss the incident

– Provide a written and truthful account of the incident, explaining any investigations and enquiries made

– Provide a written apology and details of any steps taken to prevent similar incidents happening again

– Provide support or information about support to patients or families impacted

More information for patients

You can read more about what to expect if you’re contacted by an organisation about a Duty of Candour disclosure on NHS Inform >>

The Scottish Government has also created these patient information leaflets on Duty of Candour >>

These information leaflets can be printed for you at Reception on request.