NHS Number limitations confirmed
The National Patient Safety Agency has confirmed that community pharmacists, community nurses and other groups of NHS workers will be unable to meet the national requirement to use the NHS Number from the end of this week. The NPSA said it accepted that dentists, optometrists, community pharmacists, community nurses and ambulance staff in England would […]
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Reported drug errors increase, says NPSA
The incidence of reported drug errors leading to avoidable deaths and patient harm is on the increase, according to a new National Patient Safety Agency report.
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NHS Number exemptions expected
Community pharmacists and other groups of NHS workers will be made exempt from the national requirement to use the NHS Number from next month because they cannot trace or store NHS Numbers. The National Patient Safety Agency is expected to publish an official statement confirming that healthcare providers including community pharmacists, community nurses, dentists, optometrists […]
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NPSA: unsure if wristband target met
The National Patient Safety Agency has said a technical problem means it is unable to establish whether its target to make sure that all patients in England and Wales have printed wristbands has been met. In July 2007, the NPSA said it wanted to see all wristbands being printed by 18 July this year, to cut the danger of […]
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Bristol wristbands use GS1 coding
NHS trust improves patient safety by adopting national coding standards for its new printed wristbands.
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Mandatory incident reporting considered
The House of Commons Health Committee is looking at whether the national reporting of patient safety incidents should be made mandatory, as part of its investigation into patient safety. The present National Patient Safety Agency reporting system relies on trusts owning up to their mistakes through a voluntary system. But a recent Healthcare Commission report […]
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Report shows flaws in safety reporting
Trusts are failing to report patient safety incidents and to review their policies in response to known problems, a report has shown. The report published by the Healthcare Commission on improving patient safety in the NHS says that levels of incident reporting within many trusts are inadequate. It says “incidents are not being reported effectively” […]
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Trust incident reports published
The National Patient Safety Agency has started to publish patient safety incident reports from every NHS trust and local health board in England and Wales. It says the reports will create greater transparency within the NHS by allowing managers and patients to see how many incidents occur over a six month period, what kind of […]
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NPSA Never Events policy welcomed
A company making IT systems to prevent wrong-site surgery has welcomed the launch of a national patient safety policy focusing on eight types of incident that can easily be prevented. Jeremy Turbervill, head of sales for Safe Patient Systems, said it was pleased the National Patient Safety Agency had issued the Never Events policy, which […]
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CfH says patient safety work has progressed
Connecting for Health has worked hard to ensure its clinical software design meets patient safety requirements after a review conducted four years ago found that the National Programme for IT was not pro-actively addressing safety. Speaking at the Healthcare Computing conference, Maureen Baker, CfH’s national lead for clinical safety, said: “The main findings four years […]
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