For anyone awaiting the arrival of the NHS Redress Bill with bated breath, its introduction into the House of Lords will have been something of an anticlimax. There is little there for anyone to glean very much from.
To recap, this Bill was heralded in the Queen’s Speech last May in the following terms: “A Bill will be brought forward to support patients who wish to seek redress should they experience problems with their healthcare.” The idea, we were told, was that patients who had been the victim of seriously substandard NHS hospital care would be able to seek redress through a new, simplified compensatory scheme. Any idea of no fault compensation was rejected: eligibility for compensation would be based on current ‘Bolam’ criteria.
