Every year in September, the world recognises Patient Safety Day. The goal of patient safety is the prevention of errors and adverse events that affect patients and should be at the heart of all decisions made in health care settings. However, the World Health Organization indicate that still well over 130,000,000 adverse events take place annually, of which 80% are preventable.
The goal of patient safety is to reduce the number of avoidable adverse effects suffered by patients. Medical Negligence solicitors help clients who suffer from side effects in the clinical setting, many of whom seek legal advice to make sure that what happened to them does not happen to others.
Accountability is one of the main aims of instigating a clinical negligence claim and an effective way for patient safety to be promoted. It is desirable that when a clinical negligence claim occurs, the defending organisation will learn from what occurred and take precautions to minimize the risk of it happening again. This all rests on the patient realising that the incident was avoidable and choosing to seek legal advice, however. For a Gloucester Solicitor who can help, visit a site like deeandgriffin.co.uk/
There are many initiatives in the NHS such as standardization and collaboration on best practices, which is proof that they are committed to improvements in patient safety. However, in order that patient safety is maximized, it is important that the staff working in the NHS are able to report incidents without fear of them experiencing blame and recriminations which can cause concerns for those wishing to report professionals, unless they’re in a supportive environment.
It is therefore an important factor of patient safety that there is honesty, openness and transparency when it comes to adverse events, that the patient is fully informed, is offered the right solution and given an apology. This duty of candour includes every NHS Trust, as well as CQC registered care providers. The GMC (General Medical Council) has instigated an ethical honesty policy for all doctors, along with the and the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
Such policies and initiatives can never succeed where there is a culture of cover-up and defensive secrecy. Unfortunately, we often see examples of attempts to deflect attention away from the incident. Too many times news articles have revealed stories of nurses and doctors pushed out of their jobs due to raising concerns over patient safety. Reports identify a series of failures in the care that is aggravated by the failure of the Trusts involved to investigate and learn lessons from them.
The hope for Patient Safety Day is to raise awareness of the importance of transparency and accountability in the healthcare setting with a focus on learning from mistakes and putting the patient at the heart of all decisions.