§ Bob SpinkTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, what policies he has to reduce the human and financial costs of clinical mistakes in hospitals. [75374]
§ Mr. LammyWe have established a broad programme of work specifically to address the important issue of patient safety and reduce unintended harm to patients.
The National Patient Safety Agency, established in July 2001, is a key part of this patient safety programme. The NPSA is already beginning to have an impact on the safety of national health service patient care. The agency will establish and run a new national reporting system to record adverse events and near misses in hospitals and primary care. It will promote a culture of reporting and learning so that lessons learnt in one part of the NHS are properly shared with the whole of the health service.
We are also targeting areas of known risk to patients. Work is under way on reducing medication errors, obstetrics errors and maladministered spinal injections. We have also commissioned a programme of research into aspects of patient safety which is under way at the University of Birmingham. [75374]