Patient safety - model practice policy

We take patient safety very seriously in this practice and aim to ensure that incidents affecting patient safety directly and indirectly are kept to a minimum at all times. No matter how careful people are with the work that they undertake, mistakes can sometimes happen – the best people sometimes make the worst mistakes. Within our practice we encourage everyone to report mistakes and near misses as soon as possible so that action can be taken promptly.

The following procedure should be followed:

• if an event happens that affects patient safety or potentially affects patient safety • if you feel something within the practice might affect patient safety in the future

1. [name] has been appointed the Patient Safety Officer within this practice. All patient safety incidents, near misses or concerns should be reported to [her/him].

2. The Patient Safety Officer will immediately enter the incident, near miss or concern in the incident report book and begin investigations on what happened, how it happened and why. [S/he] will consider with the clinician concerned whether the defence organisation should be informed.

3. Where an incident has caused a patient harm or distress, the Patient Safety Officer will ensure that the patient has been given a full explanation of the incident and what action is being taken by the practice. Where appropriate, an apology will be given and followed up in writing if necessary. All communications with the patient (verbal and written) will be recorded.

4. The Patient Safety Officer will also consider whether the patient, the immediate family of the patient, members of the team involved in the incident and those responsible for reporting the incident need further support. We