Box 16.1 Kerr/Haslam Inquiry recommendations bearing on the GMC

Among the recommendations of the report of the Kerr/Haslam Inquiry were that managers, and mental health and social care professionals must be left in no doubt that the breach of professional boundaries with regard to their patients (service users) is unacceptable, and must always be treated as harmful. Every effort must be made to prevent all patient abuse. Ways to achieve this change of ethos include:

• Education – of all staff at all levels – on the identification and preservation of proper boundaries, and the harm caused by boundary transgressions, commencing at undergraduate level through all the relevant professions. The message must be reinforced in induction training, in continuous professional development and through employment contracts that detail specifically unacceptable behaviour. The message must be supported by clear and enforceable codes of conduct by National Health Service trusts and by the regulatory bodies. There must be clear boundaries, clear sanctions and no tolerance of the abuse of patients.

• Promoting the obligation to speak out. Patient safety requires a culture where speaking out (whether or not categorised as whistle-blowing) is welcomed, where minor transgressions can be addressed at early stages and (if possible) resolved. The National Health Service must fully support its staff, who in turn must be left in no doubt that the culture of turning a blind eye is unacceptable, and that to stay silent may be to perpetuate and thus participate in wrongdoing.

Source: Department of Health (2005).