Sign up to Safety: Monitor commits to improving safety and reducing avoidable harm in the NHS
Monitor is supporting the Sign up to Safety campaign which aims to reduce avoidable harm by 50% and save 6,000 lives over the next 3 years.
The Sign up to Safety campaign aims to deliver harm free care for every patient, every time, everywhere.
The Sign up to Safety campaign, launched today by the Secretary of State for Health, is designed to strengthen patient safety in the NHS and make it the safest healthcare system in the world.
The campaign aims to deliver harm free care for every patient, every time, everywhere. It champions openness and honesty and supports everyone to improve the safety of patients.
We’re encouraging NHS foundation trusts to Sign up to Safety and make their services more safe and to dramatically reduce rates of avoidable harm in their hospitals.
What signing up to safety means
NHS foundation trusts are being asked to develop a plan that describes what they will do to reduce harm and save lives, by working to reduce the causes of harm and take a preventative approach. By committing to Sign up to Safety you will:
- publicly declare how your NHS foundation trust will improve safety in your hospitals
- turn your proposed actions into a safety improvement plan
- engage your staff and patients in the campaign and link to existing safety initiatives
- encourage reporting of patient safety incidents
- regularly report progress against your plan to improve safety in your hospitals, explaining action taken in response to safety alerts
How to Sign up to Safety
Visit the Sign up to Safety website where you’ll find more information about the campaign and what you need to do to sign up your organisation. The website also contains:
- downloadable resources to help you kick off your local communications work
- information about what the first 7 Sign up to Safety NHS foundation trusts are doing locally
- links to useful patient safety improvement tools and resources
You can follow the campaign’s progress on Twitter via @SignuptoSafety and join the conversation using #SignuptoSafety
Monitor’s commitment
Monitor’s mission is to make the healthcare sector work better for patients. Patients expect that when they go into hospital they will be helped, not harmed.
We’re committed to improving safety and reducing avoidable harm. That’s why we support Sign up to Safety, which kick-starts a renewed focus on patient safety and has the potential to help save thousands of lives.
Monitor will be working with NHS foundation trusts to make their services more safe and support them to dramatically reduce rates of avoidable harm.
How Monitor will support the campaign
Monitor will offer leadership and advice to NHS foundation trusts who participate in Sign up to Safety and who will develop and own locally their improvement plans.
Monitor will also point NHS foundation trusts to its national partners where specific expertise is required.
The chief executives of Monitor, NHS England, the Care Quality Commission, the NHS Trust Development Authority, NHS Improving Quality and the NHS Litigation Authority have jointly written to healthcare leaders to explain why leadership is crucial to strengthening patient safety.
Who’s signed up?
The following 7 NHS foundation trusts have joined Sign up to Safety for the initial phase and are developing their patient safety improvement plans:
- Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
- The Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust
- Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
- Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
- 2gether NHS Foundation Trust