NHS patient safety pledges

The charity Action Against Medical Accidents says it is "dismayed" that the legal duty of candour on NHS organisations is to be restricted only to death or severe harm cases.

It wants a full duty of candour for all errors and one which applies to everyone in an organisation.

It said the "vast majority of incidents which cause significant harm would not be covered by this rule, meaning that organisations would be breaking no statutory rule in covering up such incidents".

Julie Bailey, whose mother died at Stafford Hospital in 2007, has said she is disappointed with the government's response to the public inquiry into the deaths at the hospital

The Cure the NHS campaigner told ITV News "We are disappointed, we know the NHS has come a long way since 2007 but we don't feel we've got enough here.

"We wanted five key recommendations, just one of those would have done us and that was legal protection for whistleblowers....doctors and nurses have got to feel safe to speak out."

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has said the Government's reforms for the NHS outlined today do not go far enough.

In response to Jeremy Hunt's statement outlining the recommendations of the Francis report that will implemented, he said:

"What happened at Mid Staffs was a betrayal of the NHS and its values. The last Government rightly apologised but now is the time to back our words with action.

That is why, while welcoming much of what you have said, it is my job to press you on where we feel you could have gone further and question why of the 290 Francis recommendations, 86 are not being implemented in full."

Robert Francis QC has welcomed the Government's measures to implement many of the recommendation of his report in the wake of the Mid Staffs scandal.

He said the "comprehensive collection of measures" announced by the Government, coupled with the commitment of NHS staff, will contribute towards "a new culture of caring" in the NHS.

Read: Key recommendations of Francis report to be implemented

Read: Hunt outlines plans to restore faith in the NHS

The Government has accepted 281 out of 290 recommendations made by the Francis report into the Stafford Hospital scandal, including 57 in principle and 20 in part.

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told MPs: "I accept the principles behind all them".

Calls for healthcare assistants to be registered were rejected, instead training will be improved.

There will also be no statutory duty of candour on individual NHS staff to tell patients or their families if incidents have led to serious harm or death.

Instead, the Government will impose such a duty on organisations as a whole and will strengthen duty of candour on individuals using organisations such as the General Medical Council

Read Medical Editor Lawrence McGinty's analysis

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has outlined the Government's response to key recommendations made by the public inquiry into the Stafford Hospital scandal.

The following are among those that will be implemented:

• A new criminal offence of wilful neglect
• A new obligation on hospitals, doctors and nurses to be open with patients when things go wrong. Hospitals will lose their insurance cover for that case if they are not.
• Hospitals to publish monthly figures on staffing levels

• A new patient safety programme like the one that already exists in Scotland
• Streamline the red tape for patients' complaints and publish quarterly figures
• Managers who have failed in the past to be barred from getting jobs elsewhere in the NHS

• A "care certificate" for healthcare assistants to show they have had proper training
• Every patient will have the name of a doctor and a nurse responsible for their care over their bed.

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has outlined the Government's response to key recommendations made by the public inquiry into the Stafford Hospital scandal.

He told MPs: "I do not want simply to prevent another Mid Staffs...I want the NHS to offer the safest, most compassionate and most effective care anywhere"

He also said the NHS now had to adopt a "culture of learning", adding it could no longer attempt to cover up its mistakes.

Read: New criminal offence of wilful neglect of patients