Continuous improvement of patient safety The case for change in the NHS

Over the past decade, the Health Foundation has supported front-line teams working in different settings, from hospitals to care homes, to develop and test approaches to making care safer. We have learned about some of the specific causes of harm, and the factors which have both enabled and hindered improvements in safety.

The report also includes specific resources that we hope will contribute to the next phase of safety improvement in the NHS.

• For people improving safety at the front line, we provide a checklist for safety improvement to be used when developing solutions to safety problems.
• For leaders of provider organisations, we set out three practical steps that need to be taken to build an organisation-wide approach to continually improving safety. We have also brought together ten Health Foundation resources to support leaders to do this.
• For government, quality regulators and national bodies with a remit for patient safety, we set out our vision for an effective safety system, which current activities and ambitions should be assessed against.
• There is also a map showing the range of patient safety projects that the Health Foundation has supported in 2015.