NHS Lanarkshire’s drive to improve patient safety was highlighted at a showpiece celebration event.

The health board marked the end of the first phase of its Patient Safety Collaborative at the gathering, which was opened by chief executive Calum Campbell.

Calum said: “Patient safety is without doubt our number one priority. The goal is to make NHS Lanarkshire the safest health and care system in Scotland.”

The Patient Safety Collaborative has galvanised clinical teams across the healthcare system to reduce a number of potential harms to patients – inpatient falls, catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), pressure ulcers, avoidable cardiac arrests, and death from sepsis – a potentially life-threatening condition, triggered by an infection or injury.

NHS Lanarkshire drew praise from a national level, as NHS Scotland’s national clinical director, Professor Jason Leitch, congratulated the staff in a video message during the event at the University of the West of Scotland in Hamilton.

Joanne Matthews, head of patient safety for the Scottish Patient Safety Programme, who was at the event, added: “NHS Lanarkshire’s improvements are fantastic. Keep up the brilliant job. A real cultural change has been noted over the past two years.”

Jane Murkin, NHS Lanarkshire’s head of patient safety and improvement, said: “We have seen a 30 per cent reduction in deaths from sepsis since the National Sepsis programme began. That’s fantastic and reflects the wider success we have had in improving patient safety across the whole system.”

Since the launch of the Patient Safety Collaborative, NHS Lanarkshire has achieved some major improvements in the safety of the care it provides, including:

• a 40-60 per cent reduction in catheter use and reductions in CAUTI within teams running pilot programmes;
• reductions in cardiac arrest rates and increased reliability with observations, recognition and response to the deteriorating patient;
• a reduction in severe postpartum haemorrhage (excessive blood loss after birth);
• reductions in falls causing injury among pilot teams;
• an increased number of days between pressure ulcers among pilot teams.

Jane Murkin added: “We are also doing further work to continue to reduce harm and improve patient safety. Each of these successes is based on strong team working, where staff have reliably tested and measured the improvement that they have put in place.”