Recommendation BRIS-102: Ensure patients are informed about innovative procedures and clinician experience
From Bristol Heart Inquiry — Final Report, published 18 July 2001.
Recommendation
Patients are always entitled to know the extent to which a procedure which they are about to undergo is innovative or experimental. They are also entitled to be informed about the experience of the clinician who is to carry out the procedure.
Government response
No government response to this recommendation is on the record yet.
Delivery
DHSC and NHS England say in progress (27 February 2026)
Please see our responses to recommendations 1 (Patient centred care), 2 (Shared decision-making), 4 (Patient information) and 5 (personalised information) and Recommendation 23 (Consent).. . The Royal College of Surgeons has issued a guide to good practice on surgical innovation and new techniques. This includes a section on seeking patient consent. NHS England additionally issues patient information on consent to treatment (2022).
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 “Implemented – Ongoing”. Table row: section 6.2 No. 102, PDF page 116-117.
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 in principle with this recommendation.
In its January 2002 response, the Department of Health said that guidance to be issued in 2002 would make clear the information clinicians must give to patients about new procedures, including their own experience and how further information could be accessed.
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. 102, PDF page 105.
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding