Medical Centre

On an average weekday in England, there are over1 million consultations with general practitioners. The limited data on errors and patient harm in primary care obstructs the development of strategies to improve patient safety. In an article published recently in Family Practice , Carmen Tsang and colleagues reported the results of a systematic review to determine the types of adverse events that are routinely recorded in primary care. They found that there is limited use of routinely collected data to measure adverse events in primary care despite large volumes of data generated in the electronic patient records now used by most general practitioners in the UK. 

Patient safety measures can be derived from routinely collected hospital data. Carmen Tsang and Colleagues from the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College recently carried out a review of such measures, the results of which were published in the American Journal of Medical Quality . They found that many studies were frequently conducted in the United States between using Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality patient safety indicators. They concluded that these indicators need further development, refinement and validation. Patient safety indicators that can be used  in ambulatory care settings were also needed. 

A recent commentary published in the Lancet by Allyson Pollock and colleagues concluded that there is no evidence that competition for patients in the NHS saves lives or improves quality of care, Improvements in area such as survival following acute myocardial infarction are likely to be due to the development of cardiac networks that encourage collaboration between hospitals and the wider provision of services such as percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). The article was widely quoted in the media, including in the Independent and Pulse . 

A newly published Cochrane systematic review by Nik Tuah and Colleagues reported that there is currently limited evidence that the transtheoretical model stages of change (TTM SOC) method is effective in producing weight loss. The transtheoretical model describes a step-by-step way in which people move from unhealthy behaviours to healthy ones. The five stages of change that the model anticipates are pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. The BBC reported on the study and noted that behavioural change to promote weight loss was very difficult to achieve.