HEALTH secretary and South West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt visited mental health wards at Guildford’s Farnham Road Hospital on Friday afternoon and met staff from Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Mr Hunt is visiting NHS trusts across the country as part of a renewed focus on patient safety and a drive for greater transparency and culture change across the NHS.

He spoke to around 50 members of trust staff on the topic of patient safety, drawing parallels between the airline industry and healthcare – and linking a dramatic fall in air passenger fatalities, despite record passenger numbers, to an open culture about reporting safety concerns.

The visit came as Mr Hunt earlier in the week set out his ambition to cut the number of mental health inpatients taking their life each year from more than 80 to zero.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care said: “Surrey and Borders has provided excellent care to my constituents for many years. The trust has a bold ambition to be the safest and best mental health trust in England, but after meeting staff I’ve no doubt they’re on the right path.

“Their work to move from a compliance culture to a safety culture is showing real results, and I can see they are committed to achieving our bold ambition of zero suicides in mental health trusts.”