Patient safety incident reporting and responding to patient safety alerts
A stage two resource alert has been issued around patient safety incident reporting and responding to patient safety alerts.
On 1 April 2016 the statutory patient safety functions previously delivered within NHS England transferred to NHS Improvement.
These functions are the responsibility for:
- operating the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS)
- using information from the NRLS, and elsewhere, to develop advice and guidance for the NHS on reducing risks to patients
The primary method for issuing such advice and guidance is through the National Patient Safety Alerting System.
From the perspectives of providers of NHS-funded care, existing processes and policies for incident reporting and receiving and acting on national patient safety alerts will not change.
Patient safety alerts are shared rapidly with healthcare providers via the Central Alerting System (CAS).