Patient Safety and the 10 Year Plan for the NHS: Submission from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Patient Safety (February 2025)

Summary

Unsafe care continues to take an immense human, societal, and financial toll on the NHS. An estimated 13,500 lives could be saved each year if the NHS matched the performance of the top 10% of OECD countries and international experts say unsafe care costs the system over £14 billion annually. The path to safer care is also the path to lower cost as well as an ethical imperative.

As the NHS confronts unprecedented waiting lists, it is vital that a focus on waiting times does not reintroduce the targets culture that did so much damage during the period of Mid Staffs. As we change the way the UK delivers healthcare for the 21st century, developing the most effective, evidence-based systems can help us match the performance already being achieved in other countries, saving lives and reducing costs at the same time. This must be at the heart of the new 10 year plan.

This report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Patient Safety sets out three key areas where a focus on patient safety will save both lives and money:

1. Make patient safety a system goal in the 10-year plan.
2. Develop a workforce with the skills and culture to improve patient safety.
3. Measure and report on critical patient safety issues.