Mr. Patrick Lynch:

One of the things that my role includes is trying to improve the way we proactively prevent harm as well as improving how we respond when incidents happen. I get a lot of cases that may have gone on for years. Some of them may be historical and may date back ten or 12 years. Major damage has happened to people, much of which is not because of the original incident. It is about the years they felt they were battling the health service in order to get information. By the time cases come to me, they tend to involve people who have been very harmed. I hear the stories from them about their experiences.

We have made significant improvements in recent years. Ours is a large health service, with over 120,000 staff. We have millions of service interactions every year. In the midst of this there are still people who are harmed and who have tragic stories. I hear those stories all the time. It means that I am not removed from hearing about what actually happens to people. It is about improving that.