By John Tingle
In the new NHS Patient Safety Strategy for England there is a discussion of patient safety education and training. While safety is now better understood there are significant numbers of people who still have a limited understanding of safety science.
A commitment is made to have a universal patient safety syllabus and training program for the whole of the NHS. Health Education England (HEE) will have a pivotal role: Read More
By John Tingle
Unfortunately, it’s never too long before a major NHS patient safety crisis hits the newspaper headlines in the United Kingdom. The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust (SATH) maternity scandal has just become a major breaking U.K. patient safety news story.
Shaun Lintern reports in The Independent:
Hundreds of families whose babies died or were seriously injured at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust do not even know their cases have been identified for investigation in the biggest maternity scandal to ever hit the NHS… Dozens of babies and three mothers died in the trust’s maternity wards, where a ‘toxic culture’ stretched back to 1979, according to an interim report leaked to The Independent this week.
By John Tingle
The Accident and Emergency (A&E), the Emergency Room, is the bellwether NHS speciality from which all the other clinical specialities appear to be judged. Long reported delays and missed targets in the A&E (Emergency Room) lead to a public, media clamoring that the NHS is a failing public service. The independent regulator of health and social care in England, the CQC (Care Quality Commission) recently published findings from a national survey of more than 50,000 people who received urgent and emergency care from 132 NHS trusts (hospitals).The survey looked at people’s experiences, from decision to attend, to leave, using Type 1 (major A&E) and Type 3 (urgent care centers, minor injury units, urgent treatment centers) urgent and emergency care services.
By John Tingle
The independent regulator for health and social care in England, the Quality Care Commission (CQC) has recently published its annual report on the real-time state of health and social care in England. It analyses trends, shares examples of outstanding, good, and poor health care care practices. It provides a true, unabashed account of issues facing the National Health Service (NHS) and health care delivery.
By John Tingle
In terms of the progress of developing a patient safety culture in the National Health Service (NHS) in England, the Daily Telegraph reports comments made by Professor Ted Baker, the Chief Inspector of Hospitals at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) at a recent conference in London. He held the view that “little progress” has been made improving patient safety in the NHS in 20 years, and that never events such as wrong site surgery were still happening because the overall culture is one of defensiveness. The Telegraph reported, “He told The Patient Safety Learning conference that hospital managers routinely hide evidence from the CQC, because they regard the organisation as out to blame them.”
The Telegraph also mentions an NHS estimate in July that 11,000 patients a year may be dying as a result of blunders, partly as a result of a “blame game” culture between staff.
By John Tingle
The first “World Patient Safety Day” took place on September 17, 2019. It is an annual event and one of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) officially mandated global public health days. The aim is to create awareness of patient safety and to urge people to show their commitment to making health care safer. The publicity generated by the event has worked to focus global attention on patient safety issues and is a call for action in the area.
By John Tingle
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) occupies a pivotal role in the National Health Service (NHS) and social care sector in securing health quality and patient safety. Its inspection activities through its reports and publications form the backbone of quality and safety in these sectors. As the independent regulator of health and social care in England it faces a mammoth task. The CQC has recently published its annual report and accounts, which provide useful insights into its work. The report provides a window on how England regulates health, social care quality, and patient safety. There is detailed reflection in the report about how the organisation can better perform its functions and the challenges and opportunities currently facing it.
By John Tingle
NHS Resolution is a major National Health Service (NHS) organisation concerned with patient safety, health quality, and litigation management in the NHS and provides essential infrastructure services. NHS Resolution has recently published its 2018/19 annual report and accounts, which contains valuable insights into the current state of clinical negligence litigation in the NHS in England. Several key themes and trends are identified in the report.
By John Tingle
NHS Resolution has several functions in the NHS (National Health Service) in England which include managing legal claims brought against NHS hospitals and other health organisations, as well as important patient safety responsibilities. They have recently published guidance on supporting a just and learning culture for staff, patients, and caregivers following incidents in the NHS.
The guidance is wide ranging and includes examples of just and learning culture development practices. Example one is a just and learning charter that NHS hospitals and other health organisations can adapt or adopt. The NHS charter provides in the first paragraph a sample introductory pledge:
On July 2, 2019 a new National Health Service (NHS) patient safety strategy was launched in England. The strategy promises many things and lays out the future trajectory of NHS patient safety policy making.
Aidan Fowler, the NHS National Director of Patient Safety highlights the scale of the NHS patient safety problem in the foreword to the strategy:
Too often in healthcare we have sought to blame individuals, and individuals have not felt safe to admit errors and learn from them or act to prevent recurrence…The opportunity is huge. Hogan et al’s research from 2015 suggests we may fail to save around 11,000 lives a year due to safety concerns, with older patients the most affected. The extra treatment needed following incidents may cost at least £1 billion (p3).
