The aim of the Incident Reporting System is to reduce the number of patient safety incidents in all areas through a robust risk management system which enables organisations to learn and develop safe systems and processes.
This process may be used to report actual incidents (including significant/serious events and all incidents involving Controlled Drugs), potential incidents, near misses, adverse drug reactions or quality alerts.
Independent contractors, care homes (nursing/residential) and prisons are encouraged to participate in the incident reporting system; however as independent staff they do have the option to send forms anonymously. NHS Eastern and Coastal Kent would encourage the use of the form to assist in improving patient safety, sharing learning from incidents and helping to inform changes to services.
Objectives
- To highlight and disseminate learning from potential problems related to patient safety and quality.
- To provide a single process for reporting issues; whether they are actual - including significant/serious events and all incidents involving Controlled Drugs (CDs), potential incidents, near misses, or adverse drug reactions.
- To provide an opportunity to report issues or concerns that impact on the provision of services, patient safety or clinical effectiveness across the patient pathway.
- To enable key trends and themes occurring across the provider interface to be identified and use this information to implement changes to make services commissioned by NHS Eastern and Coastal Kent even safer.
- To inform education and training requirements.
- The scheme is part of the incident and risk management processes of NHS Eastern and Coastal Kent, which informs the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) of patient safety related incidents.
The Incident Reporting Form combines three forms: SafeMed, Serious Untoward Incidents (SUI) and Quality Alert Form. This will simplify reporting of incidents and near misses to enable trends to be identified and resolved, sharing the information across the East Kent economy to prevent future incidents occurring.
Please Note: This will NOT apply to the PCT managed GP Practices. The original SafeMed Drug Error Reporting System will continue via Sarah Leaver Head of Community Health Pharmacy, Community Services.
