Professor Henrietta Hughes published her annual report for 2025-26 on 13 July, laying it before Parliament as required by regulation. The document lays bare the scale of harm still occurring across the NHS despite years of inquiries and promises of reform.
Medication errors alone total an estimated 237 million each year in England. They are linked to around 1,708 deaths and cost the NHS £98.5 million annually. These figures sit alongside the human toll from specific scandals that have dragged on for decades.
More than 17,000 children were exposed to sodium valproate between 1973 and 2017. Of those affected, 85 per cent cannot work, 73 per cent face financial hardship, 91 per cent suffer mental health distress and 88 per cent report damaged relationships. The numbers come from the commissioner's own summary of the office's work pushing for redress.
Pelvic mesh has harmed around 10,000 people. Between 2014 and 2024 there were 1,252 legal cases. Only 356 resulted in damages awarded while 678 received no compensation at all. The report records the first use of the commissioner's statutory powers in October 2025 to extract a government commitment on financial redress for these patients.
This report documents important achievements, but it is not just a catalogue of activity. It reminds us that patient safety depends on clarity of purpose, willingness to confront uncomfortable truths, and determination to turn learning, however painfully won, into change.
Professor Henrietta Hughes, Patient Safety Commissioner for England, wrote those words in the foreword. Her office has spent the year pressing for action on exactly those uncomfortable truths. Martha's Rule, designed to let patients and families escalate concerns, recorded 13,481 escalations between September 2024 and March 2026. Thirty-two per cent involved acute deterioration.
The commissioner has been reappointed. From the 2026-27 financial year her office will be hosted by the MHRA while retaining full independence. Strategic priorities now include strengthening patient voice in national decisions on medicines and devices, using patient insights to tackle priority risks such as inequalities, and embedding safety principles across policy and practice.
