Mark Hughes

Radiation safety culture in health care encompasses every action taken to improve the protection and safety of patients and personnel involved in medical exposure. This report provides a framework to establish, maintain and enhance radiation safety culture in health care. It highlights patterns of organisational and individual thinking and behaviours which define a positive safety culture and provides a set of tools to assess the existing level and quality of radiation safety culture and good practice examples. The publication was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) jointly with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) and the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA).

Listening to the voices of workers is essential for a safe and effective healthcare for workers, patients and the public. Freedom to Speak Up Guardians provide an opportunity for organisations to learn from these voices which may not otherwise be heard. Freedom to Speak Up Guardians are required to report non-identifiable information on the cases they receive both locally to their boards and senior leadership and to the National Guardian’s Office. This report summarises the data shared by Guardians about the speaking up cases they received between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.

Safety is a core dimension of health care quality, and measurement of patient safety culture in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries is increasingly conducted as part of efforts to monitor patient safety and to contribute to health system performance assessment. This Health Working Paper looks at the findings of the second OECD pilot on patient safety culture. This occurred in 2022-2023 and in total took data from 648,209 health care providers from 14 countries.

This is the recording of a webinar on hosted by the Safety for All Campaign to present findings from a survey on violence and aggression sustained by nursing and midwifery students in a UK university. The findings were presented by Dr Kevin Hambridge, Lecturer in Adult Nursing (Education), Francis Thompson, Associate Professor in Mental Health Nursing (Education) and Dr Matt Carey, Associate Professor in Child Health Nursing – Acute Care, all from the University of Plymouth. The results highlighted worrying trends of verbal violence or aggression, physical violence and sexual violence towards students. The responses also highlighted a culture of acceptance among students who have been programmed to see violence at work as part of the job. There was a detailed question and answer session following the presentation in which webinar attendees asked questions about prevention, protection and collaboration.  

Taking place on Tuesday 10th December 2024 at the Royal College of Physicians in London, the third annual Safety For All conference provides an opportunity to hear from the nation’s leading voices in healthcare worker safety and patient safety and to network with frontline healthcare workers, unions, key decision makers in public and private healthcare, and patients. This event is hosted by the Safer Healthcare and Biosafety Network and Patient Safety Learning as part of the Safety For All campaign. Launched in 2021, the Safety For All campaign is focused on driving improvements in and between healthcare worker safety and patient safety, highlighting how poor staff safety standards and practice impact adversely on patient safety and vice versa. It is championing the need for a systematic and integrated approach to improve safety practice for staff and patients across health and social care so that the sum is greater than the parts. The conference will be hosted by Dr Rob Galloway, A&E Consultant at Brighton and Sussex Hospital NHS Trust, and regular columnist in the Daily Mail, and with keynote speakers including the CEO of the Royal College of Nursing, and Professor Charlotte McArdle, Deputy Chief Nursing Officer for Patient Safety and Improvement, NHS England. Sessions include; Sustainability Mental health Violence at work Antimicrobial resistance Implementing the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) Register here.

Clinical communications and data sharing should focus both on the needs of patients and staff and safety to turn insights into better patient care. With the demands of patients greater than ever before, the demands placed on clinical staff have only increased in all areas of healthcare. Care teams need to work smarter with a quick and coordinated response to patient incidents by communicating critical notifications and other clinical and operational systems to the right care team members, enhance communication and simplify workflow throughout the process. This Safety For All webinar will delve into the transformative journey undertaken by South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital to enhance clinical communications. Attendees will learn about the strategies and innovations implemented by these institutions to improve the clinical workflows, efficiency, effectiveness, and improving clinical quality using their clinical communication system. The session will cover key lessons learned, best practices, and the tangible benefits achieved through their efforts. Join us to gain valuable insights into how these leading healthcare organisations have successfully navigated their path to excellence in clinical communications. Register here.

The first ever World Health Organization (WHO) global report on patient safety aims to provide a foundational understanding of the current state of patient safety across the world, aligned with the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030. It contains insights and information beneficial to health care professionals, policy-makers, patients and patient safety advocates, researchers – essentially anyone involved or interested in the improvement of health care and patient safety globally.

In this joint statement, National Voices, The Richmond Group of Charities and 68 other health and social care organisations are calling on the Department of Health and Social Care to pause or extend the consultation process for the 10-year review of the NHS Constitution, ensuring that everyone is able to respond. Patient Safety Learning is one of the signatories of this statement.

An investigation published by BBC News has revealed that Electronic patient record (EPR) system failures have been linked to the death of three patients and more than 100 instances of serious harm at NHS hospitals trusts in England. In this short blog, Patient Safety Learning reflects of these issues and the importance of patient safety being at the heart of the development and implementation of EPRs.