Making our hospitals safer

Inspiring stories from participants on the Safer Patients Initiative show how it helped their hospitals to prioritise patient safety. 

The Safer Patients Initiative (SPI) was set up to test ways of improving safety on an organisation-wide basis. Phases one and two worked with 24 hospitals across the UK between 2004–08 in partnership with the US-based Institute for Healthcare Improvement. The hospitals involved have demonstrated to their patients that they recognise that safety is high on their agendas and are taking real steps to improve it. 

The SPI hospitals worked in pairs, learning from each other’s successes and mistakes. One impressive couplet is Torbay Hospital in Torquay and Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton. Here a clinician and a manager from each share with us their personal journeys through SPI. They recount powerful anecdotes of the steps they’ve taken, and are continuing to take, towards making their hospitals safer places. Their inspiring stories show how, through SPI, their hospitals have improved teamwork and changed their cultures to prioritise patient safety.