How can we make the NHS safer?

Listening to patients and staff was high on the list of priorities identified during recent debate on how to make the NHS safer. Speakers at the NHS Confederation annual conference agreed that policies and procedures were ‘not enough’, and called for better information at board level to improve patient safety. Among the panelists was Paul Scandrett, director of healthcare at Allocate Software, who tackled the theme of staffing levels and the need to understand the impact on patient care.

Having spent 10 years examining the issue within the NHS, Paul Scandrett opened his session by sharing his insight into what it means for patients and their loved ones to ‘get it right’. His very personal account provided an emotive illustration of how having ‘time to care’ can make a real difference – not just to the patient’s experience but also for their families, leaving a lasting impression.

“I was a ten year old. It was the night before my father was having surgery for a serious heart condition. I knew it wasn’t good news and we were worried. That night, the ward sister stayed with us for half an hour. That half an hour made the next 48 hours so much easier – not easy, but easier. To this day, I remember what she told me as a ten year old: ‘You will have your dad back in 48 hours and he will be like Steve Austin, the bionic man: stronger, faster and fitter than ever before.’ And indeed he was.”