The NHS Primary care patient safety strategy, published in September 2024, builds on the 2019 NHS Patient Safety Strategy by incorporating elements which are specific to the structure and operations of general practice, as well as the services of community pharmacy, optometry and dentistry which make up primary care.
Ninety percent of all NHS activity begins in primary care, and research shows that while the majority of care delivered is safe, annually, there are an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 patients safety incidents taking place in primary care. However, only 1% of 2.2 million incidents reported nationally are documented from primary care.
NHS Resolution’s GP Safety and Learning team, along with an adviser from Practitioner Performance Advice, attended regular meetings as part of the National Primary Care Patient Safety Group, which brought together key stakeholders from providers, regulators, arm’s length bodies, patient safety partners and ICBs to contribute to the development of the strategy. This group continues to meet monthly to review the implementation and communication plans to support the adoption of key features of the strategy, such as the Patient Safety Investigation Response Framework (PSIRF), Learning From Patient Safety Events (LFPSE), identification of Safety Champions and uptake of level 1 and level 2 patient safety syllabus training.
The strategy aims to bring together safe practice by:
- Developing a supportive learning environment and a just culture in primary care, with sharing across the system so that the services can continually improve.
- Ensuring that the safety and wellbeing of patients and staff is central, and that our approach to managing safety is systematic and based on safety science and systems thinking.
- Involving patients in the identification and co-design of primary care patient safety ambitions, opportunities and improvements.
Primary care remains under increased demand with capacity issues, and it is recognised that it will take time to make change, and will not be a direct ‘copy and paste’ of implementation in secondary care. The strategy seeks to empower both clinical and non-clinical staff and build on existing safety structures already in place. PSIRF and the patient safety strategy are not contractual obligations, however, their aims complement current quality and assurance processes required to meet CQC Fundamental Standards of care, particularly around safety, good governance and requirements to deliver care that is safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
A number of GP practices and Primary Care Networks are working with Health Innovation Networks to pilot PSIRF as early adopters, an example being Surrey and North East Essex ICB.
We have been asked by NHS England to share this survey to help understand primary care needs for incident recording, such as what systems people use and what you think should be recorded nationally.
Please complete and share the Incident recording in primary care survey with other primary care organisations.
