National reporting system for medical errors is launched

The world's first national system for collecting reports of health system failures and any error that compromises patients' safety was launched this week.

The national reporting and learning system (NRLS), which aims to improve patients' safety by collecting reports from health professionals across England and Wales, has been developed by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA), an organisation established in 2001 to tackle the problem of errors in the NHS.

The system will mostly extract information from existing local risk management systems. However, NHS health professionals will be able to report directly to the system through an online form if no local risk management system …