Patient safety is the prevention of errors and adverse effects for patients associated with health care. Health care has become more complex, requiring greater use of new technologies, medicines and treatments. Health services are more frequently treating older and sicker patients presenting with significant co-morbidities that demand increasingly difficult decision making with regards to health care priorities.

The Patient Safety Toolkit

The Patient Safety Toolkit plays an important role in preventing patients from being harmed. This toolkit allows your practice to look at different aspects of patient safety with a view to making improvements. It covers the following areas of general practice: safe systems, safety culture, communication, patient reported problems, diagnostic safety, prescribing safety.

The Patient Safety Toolkit is designed to be used by any general practice in the UK. These resources can be used flexibly, either as standalone materials or as part of an integrated package for patient safety.

New for 2017: RCGP Reporting and learning from patient safety incidents in general practice - a practical guide [PDF].

Disclaimer

This toolkit is intended to aid the assessment of different aspects of patient safety with a view to making improvements. Using it will not, on its own, ensure you are compliant with health and safety legislation. Practices should evaluate their own level of compliance with the law and seek competent advice if appropriate.