Organisation patient safety incident reports

Data workbooks and explorer tool based on incidents reported by NHS providers in England to the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS).

September 2023 update: We have paused the annual publishing of this data while we consider future publications in line with the current introduction of the Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) service to replace the NRLS.

Contents

We publish annual official statistics as a breakdown by NHS trust of the incidents reported to the NRLS. Prior to the 29 September 2021 data, these official statistics were published every six months.

The Organisation patient safety incident reports (OPSIR) provide data by NHS trust and gives NHS providers an easy-to-use summary of their current position on patient safety incidents reported to the NRLS. This includes information on patient safety incident reporting and the characteristics of their incidents.

The information in these reports should be used alongside other local patient safety intelligence and expertise, and supports the NHS to deliver improvements in patient safety.

As well as the OPSIR we also publish the National patient safety incident reports which set out the number of patient safety incidents reported to the NRLS from a national perspective and describe their patterns and trends.

Data workbooks and commentary (official statistics)

Create a summary based on an individual organisation using the NRLS explorer tool.

Please note: The publication of the explorer tool for 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021 is delayed for testing the new annual format.  The explorer tool will be released as soon as testing had been completed, and this webpage will be updated on release.

Data published before September 2016

Reports published prior to September 2016 are available on the archived NRLS website.

Upcoming publication dates

September 2023 update: We have currently paused the annual publishing of this data while we consider future publications in line with the introduction of LFPSE.

We are now publishing this data and the national patient safety incident reports (NaPSIR) once a year rather than every six months. The next publication is due in September 2023.

We have made this change to support us to improve the official statistics outputs and offer data users and patient safety stakeholders a better resource. The annual publications will cover the most recent financial year of data (eg in September 2021 we will publish data for April 2020-March 2021).

We will continue to publish NRLS reporting data every month which includes the reported degree of harm.

For any queries about these changes please email NRLS.DataRequests@nhs.net

Our patient safety incident reporting data publications will be changing with the adoption of LFPSE, from mid-2021 onward

Due to the development of the new Learn from patient safety events service (LFPSE) the type of data we routinely publish on patient safety incident reports will be changing. This will affect the ability to compare data over time. None of the changes alter the responsibility and accountability of healthcare providers to report and learn from patient safety incidents. For further information see our information sheet below.

Information on changes to patient safety incident reporting data publications – September 2020 – Information on changes to patient safety incident reporting data publications in line with the adoption of LFPSE.

How we use incident reports submitted to the NRLS to improve patient safety

You can find details of  how we identify issues and risks by reviewing patient safety incident reports, and the action we take as a direct result to protect patients from harm on our ‘Using patient safety events data to keep patients safe‘ webpages.

The pages include information and case studies on what we’ve done to address ‘rare and under-recognised’ safety issues identified through the NRLS and other sources

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