Information for Patients and Carers
Action against Medical Accidents
www.avma.org.uk
Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA) is an independent UK charity, which promotes better patient safety and justice for people who have been affected by a medical accident, and tries to ensure lessons are learnt from medical errors and improvements are made to incident investigation and dispute resolution.
Care Quality Commission
The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. Their aim is to make sure better care is provided for everyone, whether that’s in hospital, in care homes, in people’s own homes, or elsewhere.
The Care Quality Commission regulate health and adult social care services, whether provided by the NHS, local authorities, private companies or voluntary organisations. The organisation also protects the rights of people detained under the Mental Health Act.
Patient Advice and Liaison Service
www.pals.nhs.uk
Local PALS offices can provide information about the NHS, help resolve concerns or problems when you are using the NHS, provide information about the NHS complaints procedure and how to get independent help if you decide you may want to make a complaint. They also identify problems or gaps in services and report them to NHS Trusts and monitoring bodies.
Patients Association
www.patients-association.com
The Patients Association is a national charity providing patients with an opportunity to raise concerns and share experiences of healthcare.
Royal College of Surgeons - Patient Information
www.rcseng.ac.uk/patient_information
The College exists to promote and protect the interests of patients so that each may better understand the needs of the other. The College website publishes patient information and offers clarification on topics surrounding surgery.
Patient UK
www.patient.co.uk
Provides a wide range of information about health problems, treatments, support groups and services
World Health Organisation (WHO) Patient Safety Alliance
www.who.int/patientsafety/patients_for_patient/en
The World Alliance for Patient Safety aims to put the patient and the consumer at the centre of the international movement to improve patient safety. Patients for Patient Safety, one of ten action areas of the World Alliance, is designed to ensure that the perspective of patients and families, consumers and citizens, is a central reference point in shaping this important work.
UK Healthcare safety and quality organisations
Clean Safe Care: HCAI and Cleanliness Division - National Analysis
http://www.clean-safe-care.nhs.uk/
Reducing healthcare associated infections is a priority for the government, the NHS and a higher concern for patients and the public. The HCAI and Cleanliness Division National Analysis tools and techniques are designed to make sure you are making the most of your information to reduce HCAI’s and provide safe, clean and reliable healthcare.
Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health
http://www.cemach.org.uk/
CEMACH aims to improve the health of mothers, babies and children by carrying out confidential enquiries on a nationwide basis and by widely disseminating findings and recommendations.
Chief Medical Officer
www.dh.gov.uk/cmo
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Sir Liam Donaldson, is the UK Government's principal medical adviser and the professional head of all medical staff in England. These pages provide up-to-date information on key public health issues and offer access to CMO reports and publications.
Health and Safety Executive
www.hse.gov.uk
The HSE ensures that risks to people's health and safety from work activities are properly controlled.
Health of Wales Information Service (HOWIS)
www.wales.nhs.uk
HOWIS, the official website of NHS Wales, is a seamless service bringing together information sources about the health and lifestyle of the population of Wales into a simple, electronic-based service. HOWIS provides you with: A one-stop shop to health information; Easy and instant access to health information; Timely, accurate and complete information; The corporate website of the NHS Wales, and; Links to the wider information base for healthcare.
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
www.mhra.gov.uk
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is the government agency which is responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work, and are acceptably safe. They keep watch over medicines and devices, and we take any necessary action to protect the public promptly if there is a problem. Anyone can report a problem with a medicine or medical device, so that the MHRA can investigate and take any necessary action.
National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) www.ncepod.org.uk
NCEPOD aims to review medical clinical practice and to make recommendations to improve the quality of the delivery of care.
NICE
www.nice.org.uk
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is the independent organisation responsible for providing national guidance on the promotion of good health and the prevention and treatment of ill health.
NICE produces guidance in three areas of health:
- public health: promotion of good health and the prevention of ill health
- health technologies: use of new and existing medicines, treatments and procedures
- clinical practice: appropriate treatment and care of people with specific diseases and conditions
Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority
www.rqia.org.uk
The RQIA has overall responsibility for monitoring and inspecting the availability and quality of health and social services in Northern Ireland, and encouraging improvements in these services.
Scottish Patient Safety Alliance
www.patientsafetyalliance.scot.nhs.uk
The Alliance was launched in 2007; it aims to improve quality and the patient experience through system and cultural change across the Scottish healthcare system. Key aims will be to reduce adverse surgical incidents, reduce adverse drug events, improve critical care outcomes, and improve the organisation and leadership on safety.
International Patient Safety organisations
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
www.ahrq.gov
The AHRQ works as a portal for patient safety policy and learning in the United States. Working with other federal agencies that collect adverse event information, the AHRQ is conducting analysis from event information, and will disseminate knowledge as it is acquired. They also support research related to system failures that cause events and errors.
Australian Patient Safety Foundation
www.apsf.net.au
The Australian Patient Safety Foundation is a non-profit independent organisation dedicated to the advancement of patient safety in all health care environments. Through its subsidiary Patient Safety International (PSI), the APSF provides a software tool, the Advanced Incident Management System (AIMS) to capture information from a wide variety of sources to enable de-construction and classification of incidents from near misses to sentinel events in a consistent way, so that subsequent, detailed analysis is possible.
Canadian Patient Safety Institute
www.patientsafetyinstitute.ca
An independent not-for-profit corporation, CPSI performs a coordinating and leadership role across health sectors and systems, promotes effective strategies and leading practices to improve patient safety, and raises awareness with stakeholders, patients and the general public about patient safety.
ECRI Europe (health services research agency)
www.ecri.org
ECRI Europe is an independent non-profit health services research agency, whose mission is to improve the safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness of healthcare. They are widely recognised as one of the world's most trusted organizations for unbiased, reliable information. ECRI's focus is healthcare technology, healthcare risk and quality management, and healthcare environmental management. It has been active in the patient safety arena for many years and has databases of information and regular newsletters.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
www.ihi.org
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is a USA-based, not-for-profit organization that focuses on improvement of health care throughout the world. It is the home of the 5 Million Lives (formerly 100,000 lives) campaign.
Institute of Safe Medication Practices Canada
www.ismp-canada.org
The Institute is an independent national non-profit agency committed to the
advancement of medication safety in all healthcare settings.
ISQuA
www.isqua.org.au/
ISQua, The International Society for Quality in Health Care, is a non-profit, independent organisation with members in over 70 countries. ISQua works to provide services to guide health professionals, providers, researchers, agencies, policy makers and consumers, to achieve excellence in healthcare delivery to all people, and to continuously improve the quality and safety of care.
Joint Commission for Patient Safety
www.jcipatientsafety.org
The Joint Commission provides innovative solutions designed to help health care organizations improve patient safety and quality. Its Joint Commission for Patient Safety aims to continuously improve patient safety in all health care settings, through its standards, sentinel event database, Sentinel Event Alert, Speak Up™ programs and, most recently, its National Patient Safety Goals.
National Center for Patient Safety
The National Patient Safety Foundation is an independent, collaborative, not-for-profit organization that aims to improve the safety of the USA healthcare system. http://www.npsf.org
World Alliance for Patient Safety (International Classification for Patient Safety (IC4PS))
www.who-ic4ps.org
The World Alliance for Patient Safety has been developing, through a structured consensus process, the International Classification for Patient Safety (IC4PS). Following field testing, it is envisaged that the finalised version of the IC4PS will be available in 2008.
