Today (Tuesday 17 September), we are supporting the first ever World Patient Safety Day. It is being organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to raise awareness of patient safety and to urge people to show their commitment to making healthcare safer.
Health stakeholders from all over the world are celebrating World Patient Safety Day with the aim of raising greater awareness, changing perspectives and improving the lives of patients.
The NHS is committed to patient safety and this summer launched the NHS patient safety strategy which underlines the need for continuous safety improvement underpinned by a safety culture and effective safety systems.
As a Trust, we are always looking to make our environment safer, and regularly review our processes and practices. Our quality improvement programme is supporting a number of projects suggested by staff which will have a positive impact on service users and carers.
Our Dragons’ Den initiative has also made several staff ideas on improving safety a reality, most recently by the purchasing of a vein finder - a handheld device which assists in finding veins by illuminating the lower arm. It has made taking blood tests much easier and the procedure is less stressful for service users as well as reducing bruising. The new vein finder improves safety by ensuring these important tests can be completed and service users’ bloods can be monitored regularly.
You can read about World Patient Safety Day here: www.who.int/patientsafety/en/
