Patient Safety Learning welcomes IPPR’s new Injury Prevention Policy

PRESS RELEASE

  • 13th August 2020

Today the think-tank IPPR has published their new Injury Prevention Policy, Better Than Cure.[1] In this report they call on the Government to make injury prevention a public health priority and to take further action to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 in the workplace.

Patient Safety Learning welcomes the publication of this report and its recognition of the importance of improving patient safety. We concur with its identification of unsafe care as being driven by a range of underlying systems issues, such as the culture of fear, barriers to resource sharing and insufficient focus on patient safety training and skills. These closely relate to the six foundations of safer care we have set out in A Blueprint for Action.[2]

We also agree about the importance of two core areas which they highlight for action in this respect:

1) The Government should commit to long-term safe staffing

    This is particularly an important issue as we return to more normal levels of care following the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the need to ensure that organisations and staff transition to this safely.[3] We consider that system wide (health and social care) workforce modelling is needed to inform resourcing and ensuring safe staffing.

    2) The NHS should use patient safety networks to share best practice

      We strongly agree about the importance of sharing learning for patient safety. We need people and organisations to share learning when they respond to incidents of harm, and when they develop good practice for making care safer. This is why we have created the hub, a patient safety learning platform. Designed with input from patient safety professionals, clinicians and patients, the hub provides a community for people to share learning about patient safety problems, experiences, and solutions.

      [1] IPPR, Better Than Cure: Injury Prevention Policy, August 2020. https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/better-than-cure-injury-prevention-policy

      [2] Patient Safety Learning, The Patient-Safe Future: A Blueprint For Action, 2019. https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/ddme-psl/content/A-Blueprint-for-Action-240619.pdf?mtime=20190701143409

      [3] Patient Safety Learning, Patient Safety Learning’s response to the Health and Social Care Select Committee Inquiry: Delivering Core NHS and Care Services during the Pandemic and Beyond, June 2020. https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/ddme-psl/1073339515_PatientSafetyLearning-ResponsetoDeliveringCoreNHSandCareServicesduringthePandemicandBeyondInquiry.pdf?mtime=20200723130641&focal=none

      IPPR Report Better Than Cure

      Share

      A platform for anyone with an interest in patient safety to share and learn from one another. Learn more.

      Sign up to our newsletter