When somebody enters a hospital, they assume they are in the right place to get better. However, studies show too many patients come to harm in a healthcare setting.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that one patient in 10 is harmed while receiving care in hospital, with 50 per cent of these cases being avoidable. Meanwhile, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has found long accident and emergency waits have contributed to more than 250 excess deaths each week in the UK.
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As well as the incredible human costs, unsafe care also has a financial impact: an estimated 15 per cent of total hospital activity and expenditure in OECD countries is attributable to dealing with adverse events.
Of course, almost no healthcare professional would willingly administer unsafe care. The causes behind safety incidents are often systemic: inadequate training, insufficient resources at a given moment, poorly designed processes, and poor communication.
