- Date published
- November 2008
The inquiry
In July 2008 the House of Commons’ Health Committee announced that it would undertake an inquiry into patient safety. The inquiry covers three main areas:
- The risks to patient safety and the extent to which they are avoidable
- The effectiveness of current mechanisms for ensuring patient safety including NHS providers, reporting systems and national policy
- What the NHS should do next regarding patient safety
For further information about the Health Committee, including the full remit of the inquiry, visit the UK Parliament website.
The Health Foundation’s memorandum of evidence
In its written evidence the Foundation calls on the managerial and clinical leaders of all acute hospitals in England to make patient safety their top priority, implementing proven changes in clinical practice to reduce harm; banishing the blame culture; and changing the way they identify risks and measure performance.
The Health Foundation urges Ministers and NHS top management to aid this by ensuring a coordinated use of managerial, commissioning and regulatory levers. They should lead by example, putting patient safety, visibly and practically, at the very top of their agendas.
Responsibility for patient safety at the Department of Health should be clarified and backed with sufficiently senior and experienced technical expertise. In the context of High Quality Care for All: NHS Next Stage Review Final Report, they should act to build a cadre of expert clinical leaders in patient safety.
Supplementary evidence
The Foundation submitted a further two memoranda of evidence as the enquiry progressed. The first followed the launch of Safer Clinical Systems in October 2008 and describes the programme’s aim, structure and participants. Safer Clinical Systems will test and demonstrate ways to improve healthcare systems or processes to systematically improve patient safety.
Read more about Safer Clinical Systems
On 5 February Jo Bibby, Director of Improvement Programmes, attended a meeting of the Health Committee as a witness to the inquiry into patient safety. Further to this oral evidence session, the Foundation provided additional information to the Committee about the interventions implemented to promote behavioural change in the 24 UK hospitals that have participated in the Safer Patients Initiative.
