NHS Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), and formerly our predecessor organisation the primary care trust, has been working with partner organisations to build a culture of openness for some time. But what does this mean? And why does it matter to you?

Creating an environment where staff, public, and patients can speak up about their concerns will help us to improve the quality of care.

Openness and transparency in the NHS has been talked about a great deal in recent years, since the failings at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and the subsequent inquiry. The Francis Report, which came out of this inquiry, emphasised the need for greater openness, transparency, and candour in our health service.

The CCG is committed to upholding these values in our local health service. We want to make sure that if poor care is identified, action is taken to put things right.

Providers have the same duty of candour that applies to the CCG, which means we all have to be open and honest if something goes wrong. We work closely with healthcare providers in the borough, such as the Bolton NHS Foundation Trust that runs our hospital, to make sure this happens. We encourage providers to be open about problems or risks so that learning can be shared and improvements made.

The CCG is open and transparent in its decision making, too. All our board meetings are held in public and you are welcome to come along. Further details are available at www.boltonccg.nhs.uk.

The CCG will continue to work hard to achieve greater openness and transparency so that we can deliver safe, quality health care for Bolton.