The Innovation Agency leads the Patient Safety Collaborative for the North West Coast and delivers the National Patient Safety Improvement Programme in the region.
Resources for responding to COVID-19
All AHSN patient safety teams are working with NHS England / NHS Improvement on COVID-19-related support.
We’re offering resources and support regionally to help those working in care homes, primary care and pharmacy in their response to COVID-19.
View our Patient Safety resources for COVID-19 >
The National Patient Safety Improvement Programme (NPSIP) is the largest safety improvement initiative in the history of the NHS. Since its inception in 2014, the programme has been addressing national patient safety concerns. It works with patients, carers, clinicians, managers and safety experts, supporting the system to improve and uphold safety as a top priority.
The Patient Safety Collaboratives, delivered by the AHSN Network, work collectively on a number of national work streams with staff in hospitals, community settings, primary care and care homes.
National work streams
Managing Deterioration
This work focuses on improving recognition of and response to deterioration and sepsis, including support for the adoption of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) in acute trusts and ambulance services; support for primary care and community care settings to develop a standardised approach and common language for communicating illness severity across the care pathway; and the use of pulse oximeters with COVID-19 patients at home.
Medicines
Plans are being developed to provide improvement support to the National Medicines Safety Programme that aims to reduce the burden of medication-related harm in the NHS.
Maternity and Neonatal
This work supports the national Maternal and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme to improve the safety, outcomes and experience of maternal and neonatal care in England for women, babies and families. It builds quality improvement expertise through coaching maternal and neonatal staff and hosting local learning systems to support topic specific system-wide improvements.
Mental Health
The Mental Health Safety Improvement Programme aims to provide both bespoke support to mental health trusts on their individual safety priorities as well as support around challenges that are common across many or all local systems.
Adopt and spread
This work facilitates and accelerates the spread and adoption of effective, evidence-based practice across England. The programme is supporting the spread and adoption of the following priority interventions:
- Tracheostomy
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and Asthma Discharge Care Bundles
Additionally the programme will identify evidence-based interventions that will help inform future priorities.