The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) is national initiative to improve the reliability of healthcare and reduce the different types of harm that can be associated. The programme is co-ordinated by

Healthcare Improvement Scotland Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) is the national healthcare improvement organisation for Scotland. It is a Scottish public body, public body which is part of the Scottish National Health Service, created in April 2011. History NHS Quality I ...

and is the first example of a country introducing a national

patient safety Patient safety is a discipline that emphasizes safety in health care through the prevention, reduction, reporting and analysis of error and other types of unnecessary harm that often lead to adverse patient events. The frequency and magnitude of a ...

programme across the whole healthcare system. From an initial focus on acute hospitals, the SPSP now includes safety improvement programmes including SPSP Primary care, SPSP Medicines, Maternity and Children Quality Improvement Collaborative (MCQIC) and Mental Health.

Acute hospitals

The programme was launched in January 2008. The first stage had a focus on activities in acute hospitals in Scotland to reduce mortality and adverse events by the end of 2012. Shortly after the programme began, there were improvements reported in several areas of care. This included reductions in the number of cases of bloodstream infections associated with central lines, ventilator-acquired pneumonia and the length of time patients were staying in intensive care. As the end of the first phase of the programme was reached in 2012, it was clear that good progress had been made towards the overall aim of reducing mortality by 15 per cent and adverse events by 30 per cent. By March 2015, the programme was running in GP surgeries, hospitals, mental health and maternity services.

Mental health

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is an NHS board in West Central Scotland, created from the amalgamation of NHS Greater Glasgow and part of NHS Argyll and Clyde on 1 April 2006. It is the largest health board in both Scotland, and the UK, which c ...

is pioneering the mental health arm of the Scottish Patient Safety Programme. The SPSP Mental Health is working with Scottish Government and Partners to deliver the "Mental Health Strategy: 2017- 2027".

Maternity and Children Quality Improvement Collaborative (MCQIC)

The Maternity and Children Quality Improvement Collaborative brings together SPSP's Maternity, Neonatal and Paediatric care communities.

Primary care

In community settings there was a focus on three main workstreams: leadership and culture; safer use of medicines; safe and effective patient care across the interface. £450,000 of funding was put towards work to reduce prescribing errors, through better communication between general practitioners and community pharmacists.

References

External links

* {{Official website Patient safety Healthcare in Scotland 2008 establishments in Scotland