The Department of Health publication ‘Building a Safer NHS for Patients’ (Department of Health 2001) sets out the Government’s plans for promoting patient safety following growing international recognition that health services around the world had underestimated the scale of unintended harm or injury experienced by patients as a result of medical error and adverse events occurring in health care settings. Despite this, in 2010/11, 8,655 claims of clinical negligence and 4,346 claims of non-clinical negligence against NHS bodies were received by the NHS Litigation Authority, with £863 million paid out in connection with clinical negligence claims. An increase of almost £1m since 2009/10 (http://www.nhsla.com/home.htm).
Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is a component of the broader field of Total Quality Management (TQM). Arising from the world of business management, RCA is an integral part of the problem solving ‘toolbox’ of TQM, underpinning the ultimate aim of continuous improvement in quality through establishing the underlying cause of such incidents and ensuring correction at source to prevent reoccurence.
Trained in NHS Advanced Investigation Skills, and utilising a variety of problem-solving techniques, JMB Health Consultancy provides an individually tailored, independent, solution to meet your mental health services investigation requirements.