NICE 2001/26
Issued 27 July 2001

Press Release

NICE is consulting on the way forward for the Confidential Enquiries

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence is today issuing a consultation document on proposals for the future arrangements of the four Confidential Enquiries. The document sets out wide-ranging and challenging suggestions for changes to the remit, organisational structures and methodologies of the Confidential Enquiries. The aim of these changes is to enable the recommendations arising from Enquiry reports to have similar status to other NICE guidance, better enabling their implementation by the NHS to improve patient care.

Comments on the proposals are being sought from the Institutes stakeholders, and the full document is available on the NICE website. The deadline for responses is 31st October 2001.

Professor Peter Littlejohns (Clinical Director of NICE and Chair of the Implementation Group) said, "It is clear that the Confidential Enquiries have an important role to play in the modern NHS. By consulting widely in this way we can establish the best way forward to ensure their contribution improves patient care."

Mr John Llewellyn Williams (Chairman of the National Confidential Enquiry into Perioperative Deaths and Vice President of the Royal College of Surgeons) said, "We are delighted. The proposals build on the original raison d'etre of NCEPOD and give us a positive role in areas which we have long wanted to explore."

Professor Sir George Albertti (President of the Royal College of Physicians) said, "Overall, I strongly support the new proposals by NICE. Over the years the Confidential Enquiries generated invaluable information, which has helped improve patient care. We potentially welcome the new Medical and Surgical Care Group, and the emphasis on data quality".

Professor Robert Shaw (Chair of Confidential Enquiry into Stillbirths and Deaths in Infancy and President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists) said, "We strongly support this consultation. CESDI has always been committed to improving the health of mothers and infants and we see this review as an opportunity to move forward and develop the role of the Confidential Enquiries."

Ends

Notes for Editors

1. The Institute received responsibility for the four Confidential Enquiries from the Department of Health in 1999:

  • Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths (CEMD),
  • Confidential Enquiry into Stillbirths and Deaths in Infancy (CESDI),
  • National Confidential Enquiry into Perioperative Deaths (NCEPOD) and
  • Confidential Enquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness (CISH)

2. The Enquiries aim to improve clinical practice through the investigation of deaths in specific circumstances.

3. Professor Sir John Grimley Evans, a consultant in geriatric medicine from Oxford, was commissioned to conduct an independent review of the Enquiries in 2000. The Board of the Institute accepted the report (available on the Institute's website: www.nice.org.uk) in June 2000, and agreed that a working group should be established to study it and its recommendations and to develop an implementation plan. The NICE Board has approved the proposals made by the Implementation Group.

4. The members of the Implementation Group are (and contact details):

National Institute for Clinical Excellence (as above):

Professor Peter Littlejohns (Chairman)

Dr Linda Garvican

Professor Parveen Kumar

Mrs Mary McClarey

Ms Andrea Sutcliffe

Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths (0207 972 4344):

Professor James Drife

Dr Gwyneth Lewis

Confidential Enquiry into Stillbirths and Deaths in Infancy (0207 486 1191):

Dr Mary MacIntosh

Ms Helen Pinfold

Professor Robert Shaw

Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness (0161 291 4751):

Professor Louis Appleby

Dr Jenny Shaw

National Confidential Enquiry into Perioperative Deaths (0207 831 6430):

Mrs Christobel Hargraves (from Jan 2001)

Mr Ron Hoile

Mr John Williams

Mrs Fiona Whimster (to Dec 2000)

Department of Health (020 7210 5649):

Mr Mark Noterman

Dr Sheena Parker

National Assembly of Wales (02920 82 33 65):

Mrs Heulwen Evans

Mrs Elaina Chamberlain