BBC News Online: Health

1,000 error reports to safety agency

Hospitals report incidents to the safety agency

The admission was made by the joint head of the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) on the day that the government will spell out its formal response to the Kennedy report into the Bristol baby heart scandal, published last July.

The establishment of the NPSA was announced last April, but it's formation was influenced by events at Bristol.

The NSPA, covering England and Wales, now has 26 pilot schemes up and running.

Sue Williams, joint chief executive of the NPSA told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We have had in the pilot phase about a thousand reports in to date, with a range of problems, drug errors - a thousand adverse events.

"This is in keeping with what we expect."

"We are encouraging an open and honest culture.

"The substance of the incidents in terms of analysis of trends and types of incidents we will be making public and feeding back to the service."

Pilot schemes

Doctors and other members of staff can report incidents to the agency, without fear of being singled out for whistle-blowing.

The body is also set to have talks with carers' and voluntary organisations next months to see how they could feed their concerns into the system.

The independent body will collate reports of mistakes made in hospitals and so-called "near misses", whether or not patients have been harmed.

It will decide when to issue recommendations across trusts to ensure that particular error does not happen again.