England’s 15 Patient Safety Collaboratives (PSCs) play an essential role in identifying and spreading safer care initiatives from within the NHS and industry, ensuring these are shared and implemented throughout the health and care system.

PSCs are funded and nationally coordinated by NHS England and NHS Improvement, and hosted locally by the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs).

They deliver the National Patient Safety Improvement Programmes (SIPs), which are a key part of the NHS Patient Safety Strategy, and collectively form the largest safety initiative in the history of the NHS.

During the financial year KSS PSC’s work was focussed on Deteriorating Patients, Maternity and Neonatal, and Medication Safety.

It was also driving work around the four national Spread and Adoption priorities (below), and leading the national delivery of the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Emergency Laparotomy (EL) care bundles.

  • COPDcare bundle 
  • ELcare bundle
  • PReCePT
  • Emergency department safety checklist

Case study -PReCePT

Prevention of Cerebral Palsy in Pre-Term Labour (PReCePT) was developed by the West of England AHSN in collaboration with University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, and involved both patients and staff. This evidence-based, cost-effective project was designed to help reduce cerebral palsy in babies through the increased antenatal administration of magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) to mothers during preterm labour. MgSO4 costs £1.

Between 4,000 and 5,000 babies are born before 30 weeks’ gestation in England per year and could benefit from full national roll-out of the PReCePT programme.

Funded by NHS England, PReCePT is also one of the seven locally developed AHSN programmes to have been selected for adoption and spread across the national AHSN Network during 2018-2020.

The aim of the programme was to ensure that at least 85% of all eligible mothers are receiving magnesium sulphate across all maternity units in England by 2020.

All 10 acute trusts in the KSS AHSN region have successfully met the national targets and the KSS AHSN Patient Safety Improvement Programme (PSIP) continues to support the maternity units in our region in embedding this practice.