Patient safety
Patients expect and are entitled to the safest possible care and the boards of NHS trusts are ultimately responsible for the safety of the care that their services provide. In March 2009 we published two reports which focus on improving the safety of care within the NHS.
The first report 'Safe in the knowledge' aims to help the boards of all types of NHS trusts identify and develop the key behaviours, systems, and measures of improvement that they should review on a regular basis to determine whether they are truly commissioning and delivering the safest possible care, and if not, what needs to change.
The second report, 'Safely does it' aims to provide the boards of all types of NHS trusts, senior managers, clinicians and risk managers with information that is helpful in driving local improvement in the governance and implementation of safer care.
Trust boards role in ensuring safer care
The boards of NHS trusts have a fundamental role to play in defining the objectives, the strategy, the priorities, the culture and the systems of control for their organisations to ensure that they can discharge their statutory responsibilities with regard to health, safety quality and care for patients and their workforce.
In March we published our report 'Safe in the knowledge', which describes what the former Healthcare Commission knows about safe care in NHS trusts in England and describes the key behaviours, systems and measures that NHS trust boards do and should exhibit, implement and review on a regular basis to ensure that they are commissioning and delivering the safest possible care.
Safe in the knowledge: How do NHS trust boards ensure safe care for their patients?
This report should be read in conjunction with the former Healthcare Commission's comparative indicators of safety and clinical and cost effectiveness, which were made available to trusts at the end of January 2009.
The findings of the report are based in part on some independent research commissioned by the former Healthcare Commission from Opinion Leader Research into the current systems, processes and information that selected trust boards have in place to assure them that the care provided or commissioned by their organisation is safe. A link to the report describing the methodology and outcomes of the research can be found below:
Research on assuring the Board that the care provided to patients is safe
Implementing safer care for patients
Safety must start with the board, which is ultimately responsible for the safety of the care that its trust provides. Boards need good systems across their organisations to ensure that the care they provide to patients is as safe as reasonably possible.
In March we published our report 'Safely does it', which assesses whether NHS organisations have the systems in place, from the board to the ward in three nationally recognised areas of risk to the safety of patients: inpatient falls, the implementation of actions required in safety alerts, and the safe use of medical devices.
Our findings are primarily based on a study that we carried out into these three areas of risk and are grouped around four key stages in the process of ensuring safer care: collecting information, making decisions and being accountable for safer care, implementing actions and monitoring the implementation of those actions
