National State of Patient Safety 2024

The National Patient Safety Report 2024 produced by the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London calls for a renewed and more focused set of key patient safety priorities. Comparing metrics analysed for the first report published in 2022, this recent report found that there had been failings in 12 of the 22 measured.

Maternity and neonatal services 

For the first time in a decade, rates of maternal and neonatal deaths have risen and there continue to be disparities in outcome. Women living in the most deprived areas have a maternal mortality rate more than twice as high as those in the least deprived areas. Maternal death rates for women from Black ethnic backgrounds are almost three times higher than for White women. 

North/South divide

The impact of unsafe care is greater in the North than the South. Adverse effects of medical treatment is twice as high in the North East of England than in Greater London. In addition the North of England has the highest proportion of hospital trusts with a greater than expected number of deaths.

The following key figures are highlighted in the report:

• In 2023, the UK ranked 21st out of 38 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for patient safety.
• In 2023, the number of deaths that could have been avoided if the UK matched the top 10% of OECD countries was 13,495.
• Cost of harm for claims resulting from incidents in 2023/24 was £5.1 billion.
• Rates of hospital-acquired C.difficile have increased by 54% from 12.6% (2018/2019) to 18.8 (2023/24).
• Maternal deaths increased from 8.8 to 13.4 per 100,000 maternities between the 2017- 2019 and 2020-2022 periods – an increase of 52.3%.
• In 2023, 65% of maternity units in England were rated as “inadequate” or “requires improvement” for safety by the Care Quality Commission.
• In 2023, the proportion of patients who said there were enough nurses on duty to care for them was 56%.
• As of September 2024, the proportion of people waiting more than four hours for a treatment decision in A&E was 25%.
• In June 2024, the number of people waiting for elective care was 7.6 million.
• 2 in 3 staff feel unable to carry out their jobs fully due to workforce shortages.

Recommendations

Urgent action is required to reverse the trends identified in this report and broader systemic changes are required with a more streamlined approach to reduce harms. The report identifies two recommendations that it believes will support the long term improvement of patient safety:

1. Local NHS organisations must be supported to adopt evidence-based interventions to tackle the most common safety problems causing significant harm to patients. 
2. The report identifies that there is a complex picture of national patient safety priorities and bodies and the health system is struggling to keep pace with the number of recommendations made to it. National organisations must agree on a focused set of patient safety improvement priorities for the system to rally around.

James Titcombe, chief executive of Patient Safety Watch, which commissioned the report, said, “This report delivers a stark and urgent message: since 2022, patient safety in the NHS has deteriorated in far too many areas. Its findings and recommendations must contribute to urgent and meaningful discussion about the changes needed, so that when we revisit the data in two years, we see these troubling trends reversed and tangible progress in reducing the devastating impact of healthcare harm on patients, families, and healthcare professionals.”

How can we help?

If you would like to discuss the issues raised in this report in more detail, please get in touch with Joanna Lloyd.