‘Sign up to Safety’ is part of a national set of initiatives aimed at making care safer that West Somerset Healthcare has signed up to. The initiative aims to harness the commitment of staff across the NHS in England to help collectively improve the safety of patient care.
Healthcare is high risk and although we try our best, mistakes can still happen. We believe that we need to be able to discuss safety openly with our patients, carers and colleagues, which is why we have decided to Sign up to Safety.
The five ‘Sign up to Safety’ pledges
Putting safety first. The practice is committed to helping reduce avoidable harm in the NHS by half and making public our locally developed goals and plans.
Continually learn. We will aim to make our organisation more resilient to risks, by acting on the feedback from patients and staff and by constantly measuring and monitoring how safe our services are.
Being honest. We are committed to being transparent with people about our progress to tackle patient safety issues and supporting staff to be candid with patients and their families if something goes wrong.
Collaborating. We will take a lead role in supporting local collaborative learning, so that improvements are made across all of the local services that patients use.
Being supportive. We will help people understand why things go wrong and how to put them right. We will give staff the time and support to improve and celebrate their progress.
PROGRESS AGAINST OUR PLEDGES
More information about the work undertaken by the practice in 2015 as part of the local Somerset Sign up to Safety innitiative can be found in the PROGRESS REPORT.
Patient Information Sheet - Being Open - in the event that the NHS gets it wrong.