Recommendation BRIS-8: NHS Modernisation Agency to prioritise patient information quality and establish accreditation system
From Bristol Heart Inquiry — Final Report, published 18 July 2001.
Recommendation
The NHS Modernisation Agency should make the improvement of the quality of information for patients a priority. In relation to the content and the dissemination of information for patients, the Agency should identify and promote good practice throughout the NHS. It should establish a system for accrediting materials intended to inform patients.
Government response
No government response to this recommendation is on the record yet.
Delivery
DHSC and NHS England state no delivery position (27 February 2026)
Please see our responses to Recommendations 1 (patient centred care), 2 (shared decision-making), 4 (patient information) and 5 (personalised information).
The NHS Modernisation Agency no longer exists. The functions of the NHS Modernisation Agency now form part of NHS England (having previously been known under the name of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement)).
Site note: DHSC and NHS England's own account of progress, supplied to the Thirlwall Inquiry in September 2024 and printed in the Inquiry legal team's Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025, published 27 February 2026). It is not a finding of the Inquiry. Their reviewed extent of implementation reads “Superseded”. Table row: section 6.2 No. 8, PDF page 73-74.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Thirlwall Inquiry legal team (15 May 2024)
The Government agreed with this recommendation.
In its January 2002 response, the Department of Health said that promoting good practice throughout the NHS in relation to quality of information for patients was an integral part of all NHS Modernisation Agency programmes.
Site note: The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team's own notes on implementation, from its Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version of 15 May 2024). The review does not colour its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green; it leaves the cell uncoloured where a recommendation was rejected, where evidence of implementation was insufficient, or where steps had been taken but implementation was not yet complete. Table row: section 6.2 No. 8, PDF page 75.
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding