DOCTORS, nurses and NHS managers who wilfully neglect patients could face jail under plans being examined by the Scottish Government.
SNP ministers are "actively considering" the idea, which is to be introduced south of the Border following care scandals in Mid Staffordshire and other English NHS trusts.
UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will announce details of the offence, which would carry a jail term of up to five years, next week.
In Scotland, ministers are considering whether a specific offence is required, or whether causing harm to patients would already be covered under the common law. If a new offence is merited, one option would be to add it to the Public Bodies (Joint Working) Bill now going through Holyrood, which will integrate the adult health and social care services provided by the NHS and councils.
The bill affects elderly and vulnerable patients who are often victims of neglect.
If an offence was introduced in this way, government sources say it would make sense to extend it to all of those who look after patients, not just NHS doctors and staff.
Doctors and guardians who wilfully neglect vulnerable adults can already be jailed for two years under an offence in the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000.
A government spokesman said: "The Scottish Government believes that effective leadership and constant attention to quality and safety is the way to reduce harm to patients, whether intended or unintended.
"We will analyse these proposals once published by the UK Government and will consider if further legislation is required in Scotland to supplement the existing arrangements of professional regulation."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article