The first ever national patient safety strategy has been published to support NHS staff and organisations to ensure wherever NHS care is delivered, from GP practices to hospitals and in the community, that it is provided in the safest possible way.

The strategy published by NHS England and NHS Improvement sets a vision of continuous safety improvement, underpinned by a safety culture and effective safety systems. Its strategic aims commit to a series of actions to support the NHS to save more lives and the costs associated with patient safety incidents.

The strategy emphasises the need to support staff and look at systems rather than blaming individuals when incidents occur. Key features include a safety syllabus and training for all staff, a requirement for all NHS organisations to identify a specialist to lead on patient safety, a new national incident management system, the involvement of patients and a national patient safety improvement programme.

You can find out more and download a copy on the NHS Improvement website https://improvement.nhs.uk/resources/patient-safety-strategy/