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.
NHS budgets are under considerable pressure. It is therefore unsurprising that many NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) In England will aim to prioritise price in contract awards, But this approach is a significant threat to community-centred healthcare. While competitive tendering is a legally required, an excessive focus on costs in awarding NHS contracts risks overshadowing key factors such as established community trust, local expertise, and the long-term impact on continuity of care. This shift towards cheaper, often external, commercial providers threatens to cut the links between communities and their local health services. The argument that competitive tendering is solely about legal compliance, and not cost, is undermined by the very nature of such tendering, which by design encourages the lowest bid. This approach risks eroding the social fabric of local healthcare provision, where established relationships and understanding of specific community needs are essential. Establishe...
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