Working with Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs)

In brief

This programme began in 2009 and consists of partnerships with four strategic health authorities to improve patient safety.

It has been designed to help the strategic health authorities develop their patient safety infrastructure, test different programmes and increase understanding of measures that can be used to spread safety improvement across their regions.

The programme involves four strategic health authorities :

• NHS South Central
• NHS South West
• NHS North West
• NHS North East.

Three strategic health authorities  have now completed the programme, NHS North East will finish in 2012.

The work across the four projects has involved a wide range of safety improvements in different settings, including hospitals, GP practices, community hospitals and community nursing teams.

The clinical areas addressed have been equally wide in scope and include:

• drug safety
• reducing deaths from venous thromboembolism
• safer surgery
• the treatment of deteriorating patients
• improving safety in primary care.

We have supported the setting up and running of the programme, giving the strategic health authorities access to specialist improvement knowledge and helped them to build project management and quality improvement capability.  

The programme builds on the body of learning from our Safer Patients Initiative, in which we worked with numerous health organisations to make healthcare safer.