26.03.14
Indemnity insurance premiums cut for trusts signing up to safety plans
The health secretary has set out plans to reduce ‘avoidable harm’ cases in the NHS by half in the next three years, with indemnity insurance premiums cut for trusts implementing new ‘Sign up to Safety’ plans.
Speaking at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, Jeremy Hunt said the ambitious plans would help reduce costs and improve patient safety – saving up to 6,000 lives. A Duty of Candour will also be introduced, meaning providers must notify the patient about incidents where ‘significant harm’ has occurred and apologise.
Other parts of the new Department of Health (DH) package include recruiting 5,000 safety champions as local change agents, identifying where there is unsafe care and developing solutions to fix it; creating a new Safety Action for England (SAFE) team that will consist of senior clinicians, managers and patients with a proven track record in tackling unsafe care; and developing new ‘reliable’ measures of avoidable hospital death rates and severe harm.
Hunt said: “It is my clear ambition that the NHS should become the safest healthcare system anywhere in the world. I want the tragic events of Mid Staffs to become a turning point in the creation of a more open, compassionate and transparent culture within the NHS.
“We now have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to save lives and prevent avoidable harm – which will empower staff and save money that can be re-invested in patient care.”
Reducing avoidable harm cases, such as medication errors, blood clots, and bed sores, are one of the policy’s main ambitions. To achieve this each NHS organisation will be invited to ‘Sign up to Safety’ and set out publicly their ambitious plans for reducing these cases.
The NHS Litigation Authority, which indemnifies trusts against law suits, has agreed to review the plans and, when approved, reduce the premiums paid by all hospitals successfully implementing them. Currently, the NHS spends as much as £1.3bn on litigation claims every year.
Cathy Warwick, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said: “The safety of the people in our care should be at the centre of everything that the NHS does and our NHS is one of the safest health services in the world. However, I worry that I have heard this before from governments without any real progress being made.”
She added that the issue is “not something that will be solved with one thing or one initiative”. In her opinion it needs many approaches and the buy-in of NHS staff and senior managers and all the organisations controlling our NHS.
“Only then will our NHS be even safer and delivering the levels of care that our country, our NHS and our NHS staff are capable of,” she said.
In addition, to the plans outlined above the DH will be launching a dedicated section of the NHS Choices website in June called ‘How Safe is my Hospital’. The online tool will give everyone the ability to compare hospitals in England across a range of patient safety indicators.
(Image of Jeremy Hunt: Neil Hall/PA Wire)
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