Coronavirus: London’s Nightingale hospital recorded 144 safety incidents in 29 days

London’s Nightingale hospital recorded 144 patient safety incidents during its 29 days treating 54 patients, it has emerged.

There were two serious incidents at the field hospital, a doctor told a Royal Society of Medicine webinar.

Dr Andrew Wragg, consultant cardiologist and director of quality and safety at Barts Health NHS Trust, said a study of the long-term outcomes of the 54 patients was ongoing, as 20 of those treated at the ExCel conference centre site were still recovering in hospitals across London.

Johanna Cade, a nurse at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS trust and who worked at the Nightingale, said: “We had quite high incident reporting at 144 incidents reported and I think that demonstrates that Nightingale really did well at building a no blame safety culture for resolution and learning. This system manifested itself and staff were really striving to make things better continually. We knew who to report to and how to escalate things.”

She showed data revealing the largest number of safety incidents involved medical devices.

There were 25 incidents that included the ventilators used to keep patients alive. Staffing issues and medication, as well as pressure ulcer and communication incidents, were also among the highest numbers.

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Source: The Independent, 27 June 2020