Patient Safety

What was delivered in 2020-21?

During the pandemic, our regional work to improve patient safety has been more vital than ever. This work included spreading best practice in tracheostomy care, maternity and neonatal safety, and spotting and managing deterioration across the region. 

Safe Tracheostomy care

During the pandemic, the number of patients on prolonged ventilatory support in intensive care units led to an increased number of patients needing tracheostomies, to help wean these patients from respiratory support.

  • By October 2020, 88% of Wessex tracheostomy teams reported that they were using all three safety interventions shared in our best practice guidelines.

  • We supported two Wessex Tracheostomy Network meetings, with 88% of Wessex acute teams attending.
     
  • Network meetings covered topics to support safe practice – including the use of guest speakers to discuss the experiences of delivering safe care during the pandemic.

Maternity and Neonatal safety improvement 

  • 112 members from all seven maternity providers in Wessex joined the three Patient Safety Network meetings. 

  • Across the region, 88% of eligible pregnant women at risk of preterm birth continue to receive magnesium sulphate prior to delivery, which is the same as last year. This is higher than the national ambition for the PReCePT programme, which is 85%.

  • All seven maternity providers re-engaged with the Smoke Free Pregnancy work, and committed to work collaboratively to reintroduce the Wessex CO (carbon monoxide) Monitoring Pathway, which they co-produced and had achieved 100% adoption the previous year.

  • In March 2020, we were invited to present at the annual Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme national learning event. We shared the success we had, working with the region's Smoke Free Pregnancy leads to embed the Wessex CO Monitoring Pathway.

Managing and spotting deterioration


  • 14 videos produced to help people in care homes spot the signs of deterioration and serious illness such as sepsis have been watched over 250,000 times. These videos were produced by the patient safety team with the West of England AHSN, Hampshire and Isle of Wight CCGs, and Health Education England.



  • The film about measuring oxygen saturations has been watched over 160,000 times, with more than a third of these views in India, as it dealt with a severe Covid-19 outbreak in the spring of 2021. 



                           
                                                                                                Pictured: The RESTORE2 team 


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