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Patient Safety

The importance of NHS patient safety lesson learning

‘SO1: Make zero avoidable harm to patients a state of mind and a rule of engagement in the planning and delivery of health care everywhere.’ .

Developing perspectives in NHS patient safety

In terms of patient safety improvement practices and culture development, a recent report published by Healthcare Excellence Canada (Gilbert et al, 2023) provides some interesting and valuable...

Patient empowerment: the need to go beyond buzzwords

When we use concepts such as patient empowerment, we need to be as specific as we can about what we mean and understand about the term. We don't want the words to be just seen as a convenient ‘clarion...

We need to support those who speak up, for everyone's safety

‘Act without delay if you believe that there is a risk to patient safety or public protection.’

Martha's Rule and NHS patient safety

One issue she discusses are the professional silos and hierarchies, for example:.

Determining what good looks like in patient safety

In a clinical negligence case, for example, the court must carefully unpack and analyse the level of care given to determine whether there was any negligence. Lawyers discuss with clinical experts the...

Patient safety in the NHS: now is the time for optimism

‘It would be quite wrong to conclude that the NHS as an organisation is incapable of learning and improving, but the evidence suggests that learning generally takes a long time and that...

Stop the NHS patient safety policymaking and practice merry-go-round and act

In the light of the above, is it fair to characterise NHS efforts to handle patient safety crises and develop policy and practice in the area as akin to being on a patient safety merry-go round? It is...

Considering NHS patient safety culture in context

‘Treating over a million people a day in England, the NHS touches all of our lives. When it was founded in 1948, the NHS was the first universal health system to be available to all, free at the...

Patient redress in clinical negligence cases: an uneven playing field

‘We contend that part of the ongoing muddle about safety cultures stems from this lack of focused attention on the nature and implications of justice in the field of patient safety.’ .

The cyclical nature of patient safety

The problems with maternity and neonatal services in East Kent, as highlighted by the independent review, are a salutary reminder of the terrible patient safety issues that can occur:.

Patient falls while under supervision: trends from incident reporting

Within a large hospital trust in the UK, the number of falls within one particular division were studied to determine the number of falls reported while patients were under ‘one-to-one’ (1:1) or...

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