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Keep up to date with the latest news, research and activity in patient safety.

The NHS Patient Safety Strategy

NHS Improvement and NHS England have published their NHS Patient Safety Strategy. The publication out today describes how the NHS will continuously improve patient safety, building on the foundations of a safer culture and safer systems. The strategy sets out what the NHS will do to achieve its vision to continuously improve patient safety. 
 
Sam

NHS patients will be able to log anonymous complaints via smartphones under safety plans

Patients will be able to anonymously log concerns about their NHS treatment, via a phone app, as part of efforts to boost safety. The new strategy will see the creation of a centralised portal, allowing patients, their families and staff to record problems with medical devices, errors in medicines administration, or difficulties in spotting a patient’s condition deteriorating. Officials said that swift recording of such information would enable them to alert the rest of the NHS more quickly to risks of serious harm, and prevent tragedies being repeated.
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Source: The Telegraph, 29 June 2019
Sam

Blame culture forcing Northern Ireland doctors to consider quitting

Doctors in Northern Ireland feel increasingly "vulnerable" to criminal proceedings in the workplace, forcing them to consider abandoning the profession, senior medic, Dr Tom Black, warns. Dr Black, chairperson of the British Medical Association Northern Ireland, says that consultants in Northern Ireland are operating in a "hostile working culture" as a result of the situation. He explains that medics are increasingly fearful of the professional repercussions if they make a medical error amid pressured case loads: "Doctors feel vulnerable to criminal and regulatory proceedings, and this creates a hostile training environment for our medical students, young doctors... This blame and sanction culture creates disrespect and mistrust. This has a price - it encourages risk avoidance behaviours in professionals, inefficient and ineffective management, increased cost for the system and deteriorating services for patients."
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Source: Belfast Telegraph, 25 June 2019
Sam

Can we change the culture around breaks in the NHS?

The culture of working without breaks is dangerous to doctors’ and patients’ wellbeing and only a cultural shift can change things, argues Heidi Edmundson. 
Heidi, Consultant for Emergency Medicine at Whittington Health NHS Trust, discusses in BMJ Opinion how it has become impossible to ignore the huge cost of burnout to both individual doctors and the medical workforce. Breaks are no longer being viewed as a luxury, but as an integral part of physician wellbeing, patient safety, and workforce sustainability. However exceptional reporting and the costs associated with recruitment and retention issues mean that they are becoming a financial issue as well. Heidi ran her own departmental “public health” campaign entitled “take a break” to see if she could change this culture. 
"I started this project with a desire to try and change culture and I have come to realize that changing the culture around taking breaks is really just the tip of the iceberg. What we really need is a huge cultural shift in our attitudes and behaviours towards staff wellness. This will require imagination, innovation, and investment at all levels."
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Source: BMJ Opinion, 28 June 2019
Sam

Rude surgeons may have worse patient outcomes

Traditionally, as a group, surgeons are not well known for their bedside manner. While poor manners aren't commonly accepted in most professional circles, representations of surgeons in popular culture often link technical prowess with rude behavior, and some surgeons have even argued that insensitivity can be helpful in such an emotionally strenuous profession. However, a study published in JAMA Surgery challenges these ideas. The study, which looked at interactions between surgeons and their teams, found that patients of surgeons who behaved unprofessionally around their colleagues tended to have more complications after surgery. Surgeons who model unprofessional behavior can undermine the performance of their teams, the authors write, potentially threatening patients' safety.
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Source: NPR, 19 June 2019
Sam

Tackling bullying in the NHS

The Social Partnership Forum (SPF)’s collective call to action tasks employers and trade unions in all NHS organisations to work in partnership to create positive workplace cultures and tackle bullying. To support this work, the SPF is publicising the views of NHS leaders and experts on this topic and signposting information, tools and resources and case studies which can help partnership initiatives.
Creating positive workplace cultures and tackling bullying in the NHS - a collective call to action
Sam

NHSX: giving patients and staff the technology they need

NHSX has just completed a major review of NHS tech spending. They have agreed to reducing the burden on clinicians and staff, so they can focus on patients; giving people the tools to access information and services directly; ensuring clinical information can be safely accessed, wherever it is needed; aiding the improvement of patient safety across the NHS; and improving NHS productivity with digital technology.
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Sam

'One in a million’ matron is crowned RCN Nurse of the Year

Royal College of Nursing (RCN) member Tara Matare has won the coveted title of RCN Nurse of the Year 2019. She scooped the leadership category at the RCNi Nurse Awards before being crowned the overall winner. Tara has tackled short staffing, improved workplace culture and enhanced patient care at her ophthalmology unit at Whipps Cross Hospital in London. Over a 14-year mission to overhaul the unit, there have been a steady stream of challenges, including fighting ophthalmology’s corner to ensure it wasn’t overlooked in favour of higher-profile inpatient services and tackling an ingrained culture of bullying.  
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Source: Royal College of Nursing, 4 July 2019
Sam

Sepsis: How good are hospitals at treating 'hidden killer'?

Patients' lives are being put at risk because of delays giving them treatment for sepsis, experts are warning. Hospitals are meant to put patients on an antibiotic drip within an hour when sepsis is suspected, but research by BBC News suggests a quarter of patients in England wait longer. However, NHS England said there were signs performance was improving and that hospitals were getting better at spotting those at risk sooner. 
Dr Ron Daniels, of the UK Sepsis Trust, said the "concerning" figures showed patients were being put at risk. In some hospitals, over half of patients face delays. Dr Daniels said the one-hour window was "essential to increase the chances of surviving". "There is no reason really why it should take longer," he added.
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Source: BBC News, 4 July 2019
Sam

How data can shape a safer NHS

Following the publication of the NHS Patient Safety Strategy this week, which argues that new technologies have the potential to transform improvements in keeping patients from harm, Sarah Scobie, Nuffield Trust's Deputy Director of Research, takes a closer look at what the possibilities are.
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Source: Nuffield Trust, 2 July 2019
Sam

'Crumbling hospitals’ are putting patient safety and care at risk

Hospitals throughout the NHS are in such a poor state of repair that patient safety and care is being put at risk, according to an investigation by the Labour Party. A freedom of information requests sent to every hospital trust in England highlighted problems such as sewage and water leaking on to hospital wards, broken lifts and ceilings collapsing. The incidents have affected patient care, often leading to the cancellation of appointments and leaving people waiting longer for vital treatment. It is speculated that these issues are not just confined to secondary care.
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Source: Nursing Notes, 5 July 2019
Sam

New guidance calls on NHS to embed a learning and just culture to support staff, patients and carers

Challenging the NHS’ workplace culture is key to improving patient safety says NHS Resolution in their latest guidance: Being fair: supporting a just and learning culture for staff and patients following incidents in the NHS. The paper draws on NHS Resolution’s unique dataset to explore best practice in response to incidents resulting from claims from across the system. The guidance aims to help the NHS to create an environment to better support staff when things go wrong and to encourage learning from incidents.
 
 
Sam

Bereaved families could be forced to turn to ambulance-chasing claims firms, in fight for justice

Plans to cap legal costs for NHS mistakes that lead to deaths of newborns could leave the bereaved at the mercy of 'ambulance-chasing' claims firms, a former Lord Chancellor has warned. Health officials have drawn up plans to limit spending in cases where damages are worth less than £25,000. This covers around eight in ten medical negligence claims, including the deaths of newborns, and stillbirths - where Britain’s record is among the worst in the developed world. Ministers have said the changes will stop “unscrupulous law firms” receiving excessive legal costs that dwarf the damages received by victims. However, Lord Falconer, Lord Chancellor under Tony Blair, raised fears that the measures could see established law firms leave the market  and be replaced by unregulated claim management companies. 
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Source: The Telegraph, 6 July 2019
Sam

Hancock hopes NHSX will "transform technology use" across healthcare

Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has said he hopes NHSX will "provide the leadership to transform the use of digital technology" across the health service. Speaking exclusively to Digital Health News at the launch of NHSX in London on 3 July, Matt Hancock added that he ultimately hopes NHSX “will save clinician’s time and patient’s lives”.
NHSX, which will oversee technology across health and social care, was confirmed by Digital Health News in February 2019 and brings together teams from the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement.
Source: Digital Health News, 4 July 2019
Sam

NHS casualty bungles cost £400m

Accident and emergency has become the top source of negligence claims by patients. Delays, misdiagnosis and poor treatment in accident and emergency (A&E) departments are now the top cause of NHS negligence claims, overtaking orthopaedic surgery for the first time. Bungled operations on backs, bones, joints, ligaments, nerves and muscles usually lead to the most claims, but a 41-page NHS strategy document for the next 12 months reveals that emergency units have become the main source of litigation against the service.
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Source: The Times, 7 July 2019
Sam
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