Medication errors: a positive safety culture is key

Balancing the books or balancing the scales: what should drive reforms?

The Medical Protection Society (MPS) (2017), when discussing the increasing costs of clinical negligence claims, states:.

Moving beyond the rhetoric to a sustainable NHS patient safety culture

‘Approximately 810 women die every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. In addition, around 6700 newborns die every day, amounting to 47% of all under-5 deaths. Moreover,...

The need to reflect, declutter, reappraise, reset and decolonise

A key issue is how best to deal with this kind of concept. One buzzword that has been doing the rounds for some time now is ‘decolonisation’, which seems to pervade vast areas of academic and...

Is self-neglect a safeguarding concern? An ethical dilemma

Implementing technology to support the deteriorating patient in acute care: evaluating staff views

To explore nursing staff and healthcare support worker views regarding the upcoming implementation of an electronic documentation and reporting system for an EWS in a tertiary referral inner city...

Compensating for clinical negligence: the need to go back to basics

With clinical negligence litigation today, there is a much more cooperative, ‘cards on the table’ approach than formerly. As NHS Resolution annual reports show us each year, most clinical negligence...

Considering claims against the NHS

In 2020/21 NHS Resolution received 12 629 clinical negligence claims and reported incidents, compared with 11 678 in 2019/20. This represents an increase of 951 (7.5%). The total included 973 new...

The computer says no: AI, health law, ethics and patient safety

‘Fletchers, the largest UK medical negligence law firm, has teamed up with the University of Liverpool with the aim of creating a clinical negligence ‘robot lawyer’—in practice, a decision support...

Let's get the work–life balance right

Since January 2021, all jobs within NHS England and NHS Improvement are advertised as flexible, with all former staff encouraged to return with the promise of a better working pattern..

Focusing on patient safety

The never-ending story of Never Events in the NHS

‘Never Events are defined as Serious Incidents that are wholly preventable because guidance or safety recommendations that provide strong systemic protective barriers are available at a national...