A SWEDISH expert has praised Scotland for leading work in improving patient safety, with a decade-long programme which is now expanding into social care.
Dr Pelle Gustafson (below), chief medical officer, of Swedish patient insurer Löf, said he was “particularly impressed” by the work in Scotland over the past 10 years during a meeting of the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee.
The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP), which has been in existence for around 13 years, was set up to make patient safety a priority in NHS Scotland, drawing on lessons from the airline industry such as introducing checklists.
Gustafson was asked by Tory MP Dr Luke Evans which country he would hold at the “very top of the pillar” for preventative work during an evidence session on NHS litigation reform last week.
He responded: “If you take all preventive work as regards patient safety, I would say that I am personally very impressed by Scotland.
“In Scotland, you have a long-standing tradition of working. You have development in the right direction.
“You have a system that is fairly equal all over the place and you also have improvement activities going on. I am very impressed by Scotland.”
He added: “I am particularly impressed by the Scottish work over the last 10 years. There are a lot of things that we, in the Nordic countries, can learn from Scotland too.”
According to Healthcare Improvement Scotland, which runs the SPSP, the programme’s key achievements have included contributing to a 29% reduction in cardiac arrest rate, 21% reduction in deaths from sepsis and a 26% fall in some types of pressure ulcers.
The biggest impact has been in paediatric ventilated associated pneumonia, which has seen an 86% reduction.
The SPSP programme is also said to have contributed to a 24% reduction in stillbirths and a 15% fall in deaths among newborns.
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The programme paused during the first wave of the pandemic, with teams redeployed to help with Covid response work.
However, last year SPSP launched its next phase, which includes guidance and support to deliver safe care within health and social care – the first step in expanding the programme beyond health to social care.
Joanne Matthews, head of Improvement Support and Safety in Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s Scottish Patient Safety Programme, said: “The programme helps teams to understand their priorities for improvement through qualitative and quantitative date, providing evidence based information and resources that will enable improvement and support teams to apply quality improvement methods.
“It also helps teams to test different approaches, capture the learning, track progress and share with others.
“This is delivered through a breakthrough series collaborative approach, where teams focus on particular areas of improvement in phases from testing to data capture to sharing knowledge.”
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She added: “It’s great to see the work to improve the quality and safety of care through SPSP and teams across Scotland being recognised and praised.
“SPSP has worked on this agenda for many years with our Swedish colleagues and learnt much from them in our shared goal to improve the safety of care.”
Gustafson’s comments were also welcomed by SNP MP Philippa Whitford, who tweeted: “Great to hear Scottish Patient Safety Programme praised by leading Swedish expert in Westminster Health Committee.”
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