Verita has carried out numerous investigations and reviews on safeguarding patients and service users, and has developed a national protocol for investigating serious untoward incidents that involve the police.

Safeguarding patients and service users

Wyre Forest Birth Centre

Following the sudden deaths of six newborn babies in three years at Wyre Forest Birth Centre, a midwife-led maternity unit, West Midlands South Strategic Health Authority commissioned an independent statutory inquiry under Section 2 of the NHS Act 1977. Verita project managed the inquiry.

Verita's responsibilities included obtaining agreement on the terms of reference from all the parties involved, including the Department of Health, drafting and agreeing procedures, assisting the strategic health authority in appointing the chair and the panellists, arranging all the meetings at which evidence was taken, and liaising with the legal advisors.

The final report made 27 practical recommendations for improvements that the trust accepted without reservation.

Department of Health, the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Health and Safety Executive

Serious untoward incidents involving patients that require the involvement of the police are few and far between, but on the rare occasions that they do occur they need to be investigated thoroughly. In 2003 the Department of Health chose Verita to act as project manager for the development of a new national agreement to improve inter-agency liaison when things go wrong in the NHS.

Verita co-ordinated contributions from healthcare professionals, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the Health and Safety Executive and drafted a protocol document, the memorandum of understanding, that was then the subject of national consultation.

Verita has since worked with the lead agencies to run a series of workshops to raise awareness of the new protocol, and has produced guidelines for the NHS and for the police. 

View the Memorandum of Understanding and the accompanying NHS guidelines.

Verita work on safeguarding patients and service users also includes investigating:

  • the suspension of a local authority child protection officer
  • alleged abuse of elderly patients on an assessment ward
  • the role of executive and non-executive directors of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust following the outbreak of two outbreaks of Clostridium difficile infection that killed 90 patients.