View all content
World Patient Safety Day
Thursday 17 September 2026 marks the seventh annual World Patient Safety Day. To support this year’s theme, Safe care for non-communicable diseases, we have also been sharing a new series of blogs on the hub:
Featured
Latest in Learn
Search our content rich library for resources, tools, videos and much more.
-
In this blog to mark World Patient Safety Day 2026, Patient Safety Learning argues that we need a transformation in our approach to patient safety. We explore what this year’s theme, “Safe care for non-communicable diseases,” means for patient safety and highlight the work Patient Safety Learning has been doing to support the campaign. This includes a downloadable poster and a series of related blogs on the hub, offering practical insights and resources to help drive action for safer care.
-
Fatal and serious harm continues to occur when patients fall from hoists or slings during transfers and repositioning. A review of recent incidents with a fatal outcome and wider surveillance data shows an average of two deaths per year since 2015.
-
David Osborn, formerly a member of CATA’s Executive Team (the Covid Airborne Transmission Alliance) provides his perspective on Baroness Hallett’s Module 3 report 'Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Healthcare Services' to the SHBN (the Safer Healthcare Biosafety Network).
-
AI is already reshaping healthcare, from ambient voice scribes in GP practices to patients self-diagnosing through large language models before they reach a clinician. But the question of whether it is making care safer or introducing new risk is not being answered clearly enough. In this session from the Connected Health & Care Summit 2026, Mark Linggood of RLDatix and Clive Flashman, Chief Digital Officer at Patient Safety Learning, hold a frank discussion on the evidence, the regulatory g
-
As part of their commitment to transparency and improvement, NHS England has published segmentation and league table figures for Quarter 1 (Q1), under the NHS oversight framework 26/27 and will continue to do so quarterly. The dashboards provide a view of how NHS trusts are performing in key services including urgent and emergency care, elective services, mental health and more.
-
The Thirlwall Inquiry was set up to examine events at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2018 and their implications following the trial, and subsequent convictions, of former neonatal nurse Lucy Letby of murder and attempted murder of babies at the hospital. The report of the public inquiry has now been presented to Parliament.
-
Although suicides and attempted suicides that happen on inpatient psychiatric units present unique challenges to patient safety, most studies in the last 25 years have focused on patient populations outside the United States, which feature different rules, practices, resources, and cultures that may influence their findings. Many of these studies also included incidents that occurred off the unit, such as when patients absconded or shortly after discharge. In contrast, this study draws attention
-
Sepsis is a time-critical emergency. Early detection and treatment are essential to preventing deaths and improving outcomes for people with sepsis and their families and carers. It is vital that sepsis continues to be addressed as a health system safety and quality priority through ongoing action. In Australia, recent analyses show the prevalence and impact of sepsis is significantly greater than previously estimated, with over 84,000 reported sepsis separations in Australian public hospitals i
Keep up to date with the latest patient safety news.
-
The AERATOR (Aerosolisation and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in healthcare settings) study took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. It aimed to understand whether so-called aerosol generating procedures, such as inserting a breathing tube, produced aerosols in significant numbers. AERATOR was led by anaesthetic, intensive care, infectious disease and respiratory clinicians at Southmead Hospital and aerosol scientists at the University of Bristol. The study was supported by the National Institute f
-
Successful delivery of NHS England’s £2.5bn Frontline Productivity programme “appears to be unachievable” due to governance failures and political uncertainty, according to a government review. A review of the programme carried out by the government in July gave the programme a “red” confidence rating and concluded that “successful delivery is unlikely under the current operating arrangements”. The review, which has never been published, found that the programme’s ambition of devolving delivery
-
NHS England chair Penny Dash has been criticised after suggesting that winter planning for the months ahead will be “exactly the same” as previous years, despite concerns by doctors that such planning has been ineffective. Speaking at the King’s Fund on Tuesday 8 September, Dash, who took over as chair in April 2025, said, “We are about to have a paper come to the NHS England board on winter planning. “This will be my sixth year as an NHS chair, with exactly the same paper on winter planning com
-
“It’s really frustrating to be in this cycle of continuous surgery. It makes you feel helpless,” says Natalie Greenwood, of a condition that affects her so badly she is “non-functioning most of the time because of the constant fatigue”. Greenwood, 36, needs to have an operation every few years to limit the impact of the endometriosis that gives her chronic pelvic pain, as well as extreme tiredness and brain fog. She says the trouble with depending on surgery is not just having an invasive proced
-
A fourth person has died from complications related to measles in Pennsylvania, say state officials, in an outbreak that has infected hundreds of people. An 18-year-old died from acute encephalomyelitis, a rare and severe neurological complication of measles, the Mifflin County Coroner's Office in Pennsylvania said. The Keystone state has seen over 600 cases of measles this year, primarily in Lancaster County. The US eliminated measles in 2000 with the help of vaccines, but it has this year expe
-
Researchers have warned that social media may be misleading healthy people into taking Alzheimer’s blood tests, causing severe anxiety over biological markers that may never actually cause dementia. Blood-based biomarker tests, including p-tau217 and p-tau181, detect biological signs of changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease, which is a progressive brain disorder and the leading cause of dementia. The testing looks for abnormal proteins, which can be a sign of brain changes due
-
Maternity and neonatal services “cannot operate on the margins” and deaths of babies and children must be investigated as a priority by boards, the health and social care secretary has warned NHS leaders. Yvette Cooper, responding to the Thirlwall Inquiry’s report, said there had been a “serious failure of governance” at the Countess of Chester Hospital which meant oversight of neonatal care had been downgraded, with only adult deaths investigated. The report recommended that all hospital trusts
-
Trials of an inflatable pillow developed to make moving ventilated patients lying on their front easier and safer have found it reduces the demands on ICU teams. The BathMat was created by the University of Bath and Royal United Hospitals (RUH) to be used under a prone patient's chest and abdomen to raise them. Patients lying prone have to be repositioned up to seven times a day and preliminary findings showed the device cut the number of staff needed from five to three. Dr Alexander Lunt, senio
Have your say in Communities
Connect with members, ask questions and share ideas.
Do you have something you would like to Share
Upload links to articles, useful resources and tools, or submit your own original blog.
Join in the discussions in the private networks
See if you're able to join one of the networks and connect with your peers.
the hub's top picks
-
At Patient Safety Learning we believe that sharing insights and learning is vital to improving outcomes and reducing harm. That's why we created the hub; providing a space for people to come together and share their experiences, resources and good practice examples. Dementia is an umbrella term for a number of diseases that affect the brain, with Alzheimer’s disease its most common cause. We have picked a range of resources and reflections about keeping people with dementia safe in health and c
-
At Patient Safety Learning we believe that sharing insights and learning is vital to improving outcomes and reducing harm. That's why we created the hub; providing a space for people to come together and share their experiences, resources and good practice examples. In this Top picks, we’ve pulled together tools, quality improvement projects, blogs and reports shared on the hub to help reduce and prevent falls in healthcare settings.
-
Sickle cell disease can affect people of all backgrounds but is more common in African and Caribbean communities. It has become one of the fastest growing genetic conditions in England, with 250 new cases every year. People living with sickle cell disease may experience painful crises, fatigue and an increased risk of serious health complications. Despite this, the condition is often not well understood. At Patient Safety Learning we believe that sharing insights and learning is vital to improv
-
According to the UK Sepsis Trust, sepsis affects 245,000 people every year in the UK alone, and 48,000 people die of sepsis-related illnesses. Sepsis arises when the body’s response to an infection injures its own tissues and organs. It may lead to shock, multi-organ failure, and death – especially if not recognised early and treated promptly. Dr Ron Daniels, Founder & Joint CEO of the UK Sepsis Trust, and Topic Lead for the hub, said: “During the Covid-19 pandemic, attention to sepsis care
-
Our free platform for patient safety – the hub – was launched in 2019 with the aim of sharing learning for safer care. We now have members from all around the world, and many are helping to shape the hub by sharing their patient safety insights through blogs, interviews, tools and practical examples. In this Top picks, we showcase some of our international contributions, and celebrate our ever-growing network of people who are passionate about reducing avoidable harm.
-
We often hear from the Patient Safety Management Network that members are in interested in how others from different industries do things. In this hub top picks, we have pulled together useful websites on safety and investigations in other industries, including aviation, rail, nuclear and defence.
-
Knowing about Group B Strep when you’re pregnant or in the early weeks after birth can make a massive difference – most Group B Strep infections in newborn babies can be prevented, and early treatment can and does save lives. Group B Strep Awareness Week is a dedicated week to raise awareness of group B Strep – the most common cause of serious infection in newborn babies in the UK. Infections that are usually preventable. The week aims to inform expectant parents, healthcare professionals,
-
Learning Disability Week is the third week of June every year. The event, organised by the charity Mencap, is an opportunity to raise awareness about different learning disabilities and challenge some of the barriers people who have learning disabilities face. According to Mencap, a learning disability is a person's reduced intellectual ability, meaning they can face difficulty with everyday activities. People with a learning disability can sometimes need extra support to learn new skills,
About Patient Safety Learning
and the hub
Patient Safety Learning is a charity and independent voice for improving patient safety.
The drive to create Patient Safety Learning was born from the frustration of seeing the same themes emerge time and time again in healthcare systems around the world. Patient Safety Learning’s the hub is an award-winning platform to share learning for patient safety.
Receive our monthly newsletter
Want to receive more information directly from us? Sign up today.
