A system-wide design-led approach to tackling patient safety in the NHS.
This report sets out a perspective from the world of design – based on a scoping study carried out by a research team from the Universities of Cambridge and Surrey and the Royal College of Art – to identify previously unrecognised opportunities for improved patient safety in the NHS.
Properly addressed, improvements in patient safety will contribute significantly to improving the quality of care for NHS patients. Reduction in errors will also free up resources at present used to cope with the consequences of those errors. Implementing the thinking set out in this report could go a long way to help achieve that goal. If the NHS can embrace the broad systems approach set out in the following pages, we would undoubtedly save lives. Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer