All health and social care services in Scotland have a duty of candour as an organisation. This is a legal requirement which means that when unintended or unexpected events happen that result in death or harm as defined in the Act, the people affected understand what has happened, receive an apology, and that organisations learn how to improve for the future.
Duty of Candour events can be identified through incident reporting/adverse event reviews and also through complaints coming into the organisation.
An important part of this duty is that we provide a Duty of Candour Annual Report about any Duty of Candour events in year and how the duty of candour is implemented in our services. You can find the Duty of Candour annual reports as an appendix to the Medical Director reports within our Board papers. The most recent Duty of Candour report for 23/24 can be found at: 24-25-30-medical-director-annual-report-2023-24 (nhsshetland.scot)