Patient Safety First At The Second Annual Patient Safety Congress

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 04 May 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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Patient Safety First, the national campaign for patient safety in England, will be a key component of this year's Patient Safety Congress. Being held at the Birmingham ICC on 30th April and 1st May, the Patient Safety Congress is designed to give NHS staff the tools and practical information to deliver improvements in patient safety.

Patient Safety First is an integral part of the program, with a main aim of promoting its role in:

Leadership for Safety - supporting change at at executive level in Trusts to make patient safety a visible and tangible priority for NHS Trusts

Safer Peri-Operative Care - and in particular our role in leading the support for Trust implementation of the World Health Organisation's Surgical Safety Checklist:

-- Gren Kershaw and Dr Peter Cavanagh, both part of our Leadership intervention team, will be speaking at a delegate's workshop during the Leadership Stream on 30th April. Delivering the Leadership Intervention will focus on helping Trust management boards to clearly demonstrate that patient safety is their highest priority and lead by example

-- Stephen Ramsden will also be speaking at the Safety campaigns interventions workshop on 1st May, alongside the Welsh and Scottish safety campaigns.

-- Other members of the core team speaking at the event include:

- Jane Reid, Patient Safety First Lead on the Reducing Harm in Perioperative Care Intervention, of which the WHO Checklist is an integral part. Jane is a past President of the Association for Perioperative Practice and President Elect for the International Federation for Preoperative Nursing

- Mr Mark Emerton, Practice Lead for the Perioperative intervention and Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Leeds Teaching Hospital

-- Delegates are invited to visit the Patient Safety First stand where members of the core team leading the campaign will be available to offer their expertise and experiences

Patient Safety First is an initiative with a difference. Led by NHS staff FOR the NHS, Patient Safety First is set to make positive and sustainable changes to culture and practice aiming to mobilise large numbers of people to take positive action. 89% of acute Trusts are now voluntarily signed up to Patient Safety First with a cause of making patient safety everyone's highest priority,

Stephen Ramsden says: "Patient safety is everyone's responsibility and both the Patient Safety Congress and Patient Safety First are opportunities for NHS staff to take action. Through positive change, anyone working with patients can show that they take the need to improve patient safety seriously."

89% of all Acute Trusts have signed up to Patient Safety First and 13 professional organisations. In total 264 Trusts are signed up to Patient Safety First including PCT's, Mental Health and Ambulance Trusts.

What is Patient Safety First?

Patient Safety First is part of an international move to make healthcare safer. It is a voluntary Campaign which supports Trusts in making recommended changes to practice that are proven to reduce the level of avoidable harm. These are:

- Leadership for safety - getting Trust Board s to clearly demonstrate that patient safety is their the highest priority

- Care of deteriorating patients in acute care - to reduce in-hospital cardiac arrest and mortality rate through earlier recognition and treatment of the deteriorating patient

- Reducing harm in critical care - Improving the care of patients receiving critical care through the reliable application of care bundles.

- Reducing harm in Perioperative care - Preventing surgical site infection and implementing the World Health Organisation's Safe Surgery Checklist

- Reduction of harm from high-risk medication - includes anticoagulants, opiates, injectable sedatives and insulin.

Source
Patient Safety First

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