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Patient Safety

Reflecting on patient safety in 2022

The key issue for me is the extent to which the advice and recommendations made in the reports are acted on in the NHS and whether safer practice results. As we closed the year, the Institute of...

The actual cost of clinical negligence in the NHS

‘This unsustainable situation is driven by an outdated legal system rather than deteriorating clinical standards. Legal reform is desperately needed.’

Moving beyond the rhetoric in NHS patient safety: facing up to failings

The first report to cause me to pose these questions is the long-awaited report by Dr Bill Kirkup (Kirkup, 2022) into the events at the maternity and neonatal services in East Kent. This has just been...

Avoiding litigation and complaints through good communication practices

According to NHS Resolution (2022a) missed fractures can occur at sites throughout the body but one injury in particular, hip fractures in older patients with a history of a fall, stood out when cases...

The slow pace of developing an NHS patient safety culture

‘Too often, valid lessons are drawn from adverse events but their implementation throughout the NHS is very patchy. Active learning is mostly confined to the individual organisation in which an...

Patient safety and clinical negligence: the importance of reflection

The COVID-19 pandemic is still with us as we have moved into the new normality of coping with the virus. There is now time for reflection on how events developed and progressed from a patient safety...

Past cases provide basis to improve patient safety education and training

One way to reflect on errors is to look at closed legal claims and examine the causes of litigation. This is a valuable exercise, as it enables a wealth of important detail to be obtained. Solicitors...

Improving patient communication through the duty of candour and shared decision-making

One way forward to ensuring good communication practices in health care is the proper implementation of the duty of candour..

Patient safety, choice and the law: news round-up

People who feel that they may have been wronged by a particular NHS resource allocation decision can access the courts to try to resolve the dispute. There is a well-developed legal framework on NHS...

Ways of tackling the continuing problem of Never Events

In its seminal report, Opening the Door to Change, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) (2018) stated:.

Debating the best way to compensate patients for clinical negligence PART 2

Issues discussed in the HSCC report included the impact of clinical negligence claims on patients themselves, nurses, doctors involved in a case and on the NHS generally. There was a focus on reining...

Debating the best way to compensate patients for clinical negligence

When viewing the recommendations, it is important to guard against a purely economic perspective of the issues. The report clearly echoes the concerns of many that something must be done about the...

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