Making care safer

The risk of a 'superbug' infection is the most widely publicised healthcare hazard, but it is not the only kind of risk that patients may face. Here you can find out about our work to help make care safer for patients, including how we scored your local NHS trust on different aspects of patient safety.


What we look for

All hospitals make mistakes at times, even those that provide world-class clinical treatment. What matters is to learn the right lessons from such incidents. When assessing a trust, we look for a culture that encourages staff to report mistakes and then takes steps to ensure that they don't happen again.

We also look at how well the trust manages the most common areas of risk for patients, to prevent problems occurring in the first place. For example, a patient's medication needs to be dealt with carefully - including giving doses correctly, monitoring side effects and making sure it is reviewed regularly. Falls in hospital are another possible hazard, particularly for older people, and it's important that staff follow safety guidelines when taking X-rays.

Tackling healthcare associated infections

In 2008/09 we are inspecting all NHS hospital trusts in England to check that they are taking the actions needed to ensure patients are cared for in an environment where the risk of infection is kept as low as possible, and which is clean.

Find out more about our work to reduce healthcare-associated infection

Related documents

Useful sites

Other information about managing risk and safety

Contact