Swedish expert praises leading work in patient safety in Scotland

Swedish expert has praised Scotland for leading work in improving patient safety, with a decade-long programme which is now expanding into social care.

Dr Pelle Gustafson (below), chief medical officer, of Swedish patient insurer Löf, said he was “particularly impressed” by the work in Scotland over the past 10 years during a meeting of the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee.

The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP), which has been in existence for around 13 years, was set up to make patient safety a priority in NHS Scotland, drawing on lessons from the airline industry such as introducing checklists.

Gustafson was asked by Tory MP Dr Luke Evans which country he would hold at the “very top of the pillar” for preventative work during an evidence session on NHS litigation reform last week.

He responded: “If you take all preventive work as regards patient safety, I would say that I am personally very impressed by Scotland.

“In Scotland, you have a long-standing tradition of working. You have development in the right direction.

“You have a system that is fairly equal all over the place and you also have improvement activities going on. I am very impressed by Scotland.”

He added: “I am particularly impressed by the Scottish work over the last 10 years. There are a lot of things that we, in the Nordic countries, can learn from Scotland too.”

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Source: The National, 16 January 2022