NHSScotland is the first health service in the world to adopt a national approach to improving and patient safety, demonstrating the partnership between Scottish Government and NHS Scotland working towards the overall Quality Strategy ambitions of safe, effective and person centred care.

Launched on January 14 2008, the ground breaking programme was created with the objective of improving the safety of hospital care across the country, using evidence-based tools and techniques to improve the reliability and safety of everyday health care systems and processes.

The Scottish Patient Safety Programme is integral to the work of Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s Improvement Hub (ihub) portfolios, with the programme currently supporting improvements within all health boards and more recently health and social care partnerships.

From the initial focus within Acute care, over the past decade the programme has expanded to support improvements in safety across a wide range of care settings including Primary Care, Mental Health, Maternity, Neonatal, Paediatric services, Healthcare Associated Infections and Medicines. All of these have been underpinned by the robust application of quality improvement methodology to bring about significant change in outcomes across Scotland.

Over the past 10 years the programme has achieved international recognition for its approach and achievements;

“The Scottish Patient Safety Programme, marks Scotland as a leader, second to no nation on earth, in its commitment to reducing harm to patients, dramatically and continually."

Dr Donald Berwick, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

View the SPSP10 web pages