This report was commissioned by Sir Liam
Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer, to reconsider the organisation arrangements
currently in place to ensure that patient safety is at the heart of the
healthcare agenda. The review explicitly aimed to address issues raised by the
National Audit Office in its report, A Safer Place for Patients,
as well as to look at the NHS approach to patient safety more widely. The report
makes a number of key recommendations to build on the progress already achieved
in embedding patient safety in the NHS. These include:
- establishing a national patient safety forum to oversee the design and implementation of a national patient safety initiative;
- simplifying the reporting of adverse effects to make it easier for clinical staff to report on a confidential basis without the fear of retribution;
- establishing Patient Safety Action Teams to support frontline staff in delivering the national patient safety agenda.