Patient safety in the United Kingdom: Evolution and progress (1 May 2007)

Summary

The dangers of health care in Britain have been long understood. Systematic data collection of the hazards of health care can be traced back at least to the time of Florence Nightingale's publications in the 1860s. This short paper from Susan Burnett and Charles Vincent, outlines the evolution of patient safety and trace its development and progress over the last 10 years in Britain, where a nationalised health service and sustained commitment from Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson and other senior figures have brought patient safety to considerable prominence.