NHS Patient Safety Strategy launched

NHS Improvement has published its NHS Patient Safety Strategy, describing how the NHS will continuously improve patient safety, building on the foundations of a safer culture and safer systems.

The strategy sets out plans to use new digital technologies to support learning and create the first patient safety curriculum, training and education framework for the NHS, as part of a wider vision for the NHS to continuously improve patient safety and the role of a safety culture to deliver it.

NHS Improvement claims that improving the service’s ability to share safety insight and better empower its staff could save almost 1,000 extra lives and £100 million in care costs each year from 2023, going further to suggest that the potential exists to reduce claims provision by approximately £750 million by 2025.

This will be done by building on two existing foundations: a patient safety culture and a patient safety system.

Amber Jabbal, head of Policy at NHS Providers, said: “This national patient safety strategy will be an important tool for NHS trusts to help foster a culture of learning in which staff feel able to speak up and contribute to continuous improvement to patient safety.   NHS staff are committed to ensuring that patients are kept as safe as possible and this strategy helpfully sets out how we can build on this commitment through the use of technology, sharing learning and empowering staff and patients when it comes to quality of care.

“To achieve the ambitions of this strategy, there must be a culture shift within the NHS, moving away from blame, to one which is transparent and support learning from the causes of incidents. Dedicated experts within organisations will help to support this open dialogue among staff.

“It is right that NHS staff across all levels are given the training, expertise and resources needed to fully embed an effective safety culture and spot the risks of patient harm when they occur. Staff and trusts must also have the support and resource they require to adopt the digital solutions which will play a key role in delivering these aims.  We are pleased to have supported the work carried out by Dr Aidan Fowler and will continue to work with trusts and their partners to implement the vision for patient safety set out in this strategy.”