This year’s theme ‘Improving diagnosis for patient safety’ highlights the importance of timely diagnosis of conditions and calls on healthcare providers around the world to address issues that lead to delay, incorrect or missed diagnosis and the impact this can have on a patient’s health and quality of life.

‘Get it right, make it safe’
The slogan of World Safety Day 2024 encapsulates the key principles of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) which IC24 adopted in November of last year. This calls for a systems-based approach to understanding why things can go wrong in healthcare and for greater engagement with patients, their relatives and carers to better understand which questions need to be answered and to focus on improvement rather than blame.

Find out more on the WHO website.

Our learning – Sepsis and Stroke
In adopting the PSIRF, all healthcare providers must identify areas for improvement and evidence the learning and changes made arising from investigations of incidents and complaints. Two key themes in our improvement plan concern appropriate management of patients with suspected stroke or sepsis, making sure they are assessed using the most appropriate pathway within NHS 111 and that our clinicians can prioritise and direct patients to the care they need.

Both stroke and sepsis are conditions that can present initially with minor or unclear symptoms, sometimes in patients with existing long-term conditions or complex health history that can influence the initial focus of any assessment.

Being able to identify possible symptoms and ruling out the possibility of stroke or sepsis is an important challenge for NHS 111 and the assessment pathways we use.

Our learning for sepsis and stroke includes:

• Appropriate prioritisation for patients who are housebound or unable to attend out of hours appointments including urgent treatment centres or A&E
• Offering booked appointment times for some patients who need to be reviewed by a clinician in our Out of Hours services
• Ensuring all feedback, including audit to our Health and Clinical Advisors is constructive and supportive
• Creating interactive online learning for all colleagues that helps identify possible symptoms of stroke or sepsis
• Sharing testimony from patients of their experience via our learning portal to help everyone across our organisation understand the patient perspective and the impact of delayed diagnosis
• Feedback to the national NHS 111 Pathways team and sharing learning with other providers
• Working with a Patient Safety Partner, a member of the public with broad experience of healthcare, to help ensure our policies and patient communications are user-friendly

Be part of our learning culture – become a patient representative. We are always pleased to hear from patients or their carers who would like to be part of our safety initiatives. If you are interested in helping us to make further improvements, communicate with patients more clearly or just want to relate your experience please get in touch by emailing cg.admin@nhs.net.