Good Governance Institute blog: Patient Safety Learning (June 2020)

Summary

Every year, avoidable unsafe care harms and kills thousands of people in the UK, with the NHS estimating that there are 11,000 deaths annually due to patient safety incidents. This causes not only untold physical and emotional damage but it also creates a huge financial burden, with the annual cost to the NHS of unsafe care and litigation standing at close to £5 billion.

It is important that when organisations are considering the workplace as a whole system, safety should be at the core of its design.

This blog discusses the impact of COVID-19 and workforce pressures on patient safety and outlines key considerations for Boards as we return to 'normal'.