The Five Sign Up to Safety Pledges
Porlock, Dunster and Brendon Hills Surgeries
We sign up to the ‘Sign up to Safety Campaign’ and its ethos.
Specific Pledges
1. Put safety first. Commit to reduce avoidable harm in the NHS by half and
make public the goals and plans developed locally.
Practice’s response:
The Practices are relatively small, GPs and registrars in both practices view all
incoming mail, and thus they are all in the loop when it comes to knowing what is
happening with patients and their care. When a GP is on holiday the mail is kept for
them to see on their return.
We undertake Significant Events Audits at both practices which are discussed at our
regular team meetings. We also discuss minor incidents to provide learning for both
practices.
All Complaints and suggestions are discussed at our regular Team meetings
There is a process in place to circulate the Safety alerts between Practices.
We have been inspected recently by the CQC, and assessed as good from a safety
point of view that staff understood their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to
report near misses and incidents.
Implementation plan:
Continue with our effective SEA processes.
Continue to respond to the safety alerts sent by the medicine management teams.
Action plan and outcomes will be published on Practice Website as required by
CQUIN
2. Continually learn. Make the organisations more resilient to risks, by acting
on the feedback from patients and by constantly measuring and monitoring
how safe their services are.
Practice’s response:
We have Patient Participation Groups at both Practices which meet regularly, and
any concerns, thoughts issues will be discussed and acted upon.
We operate the Friends and Family tests – and the results are published on our
Website.
We carry out patient surveys at our annual flu clinic, and the results are discussed
wth our PPG
Implementation plan:
We do not routinely discuss the FFT result with our PPG, or staff members, so we
will add this to the agenda of future meetings.
We will try and increase uptake of FFT responses, which is quite low at present
3. Honesty. Be transparent with people about our progress to tackle patient
safety issues and support staff to be candid with patients and their families if
something goes wrong.
Practice’s response:
The Practice is open and honest with patients and staff alike. All members of staff
know who to contact if they have issues
All plans and proposals are discussed with the PPG, and their advice, concerns
sought
Implementation plan:
Provide more frequent Newsletters to provide information to the patients as to what
is happening within the Practices.
Continue our work with our patient group
Discuss the Sign Up to Safety Campaign with our patient group
4. Collaborate. Take a leading role in supporting local collaborative learning, so
that improvements are made across all of the local services that patients use.
Practice’s response:
We are part of the West Somerset Federation, and attend regular meetings to
discuss things that can be shared across the Practices.
We are working alongside Age UK as part of the Living Better project along with
other Practices within our Federation, to provide support to patients with long term
conditions identify management plans to enable them to feel better supported.
We have employed a nurse who works between Porlock, Dunster and Brendon Hills
Surgeries, as part of our SPQS project to enable end of life patients to be supported
at home.
Implementation plan:
Continue to work alongside other providers to provide better patient care.
Continue to participate in Federation events.
5. Support. Help people understand why things go wrong and how to put them
right. Give staff the time
Practice’s response:
There are regular Team meetings where staff are encouraged to raise any issues or
concerns. There are also clinical meetings attended by GPs, Nurses and HCAs
where any clinical issues are discussed.
All staff know that they can discuss any issues at any time with the Practice
Manager.
We share learning at regular team meetings where significant as well as not so
significant events are discussed.
Implementation plan:
Continue to support patients and staff