Trusts still being allowed to drag their feet on patient safety alerts, claims charity

An absence of any “coherent central policy or guidance” is allowing trusts to continue to drag their feet on compliance with patient safety alerts, claims the charity Action against Medical Accidents.

In February the charity found that about three quarters of all trusts in England had over-run the required deadline for implementing mandatory patient safety alerts in at least one case (BMJ 2010;340:c984).

Its latest report, published last week and based on Department of Health data obtained under freedom of information legislation, found little evidence of improvement.

By 7 June almost two thirds (63%) of trusts had missed the deadline for complying with at least one safety alert, leaving a total of 1242 reported incidences for which action had not yet been taken. …