Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Whenever a Patient Safety Incident occurs the NHS Trust must also record the category (nature) of the incident against a list of 11 defined categories. The same categories of incident apply to acute, community and acute specialist trusts and range from clinical assessment (including diagnosis, scans, tests, assessments) to medical device/equipment or the implementation of care and ongoing monitoring/review. A similar but slightly different list of categories applies to mental health trusts and includes incidents such as disruptive, aggressive behaviour; self-harming behaviour and consent; communication and confidentiality.

Here we show the top 3 most commonly recorded categories by the individual Trust during the six-month time period for which this data relates to.

Patient Safety Incident data, including the list of categories, is published every six months and can be found on the NHS England website at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/patient-safety/national-patient-safety-incident-reports/. This data is public sector information licensed to Blackwater Law under the Open Government Licence v3.0: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/.

The NHS report on bed occupancy rates as an indicator as to what capacity each individual trust is running at.

The figures presented here relate to the overall percentage of beds that are occupied overnight during the reporting period.

It is thought by some commentators that bed occupancy levels greater than 85% can lead to compromised patient safety and higher hospital acquired infection rates (Bagust A et al , British Medical Journal, Vol 319).

Bed occupancy data is available quarterly and can be found on the NHS England website at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/bed-availability-and-occupancy/. This data is public sector information licensed to Blackwater Law under the Open Government Licence v3.0: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/.

All NHS Trusts have been expected to eliminate all instances of mixed-sex accommodation, unless it is in the best interest of the patient, for instance where there is a need for urgent or critical care. In such cases, mixing may be justified and therefore will not be a breach and will not be counted in these statistics.

Any reported occurrence of shared mixed sex accommodation shown here is classed as an unjustifiable breach and therefore should not be occurring under the NHS guidelines. The Department for Health states:
“There is no justification for placing a patient in mixed-sex accommodation where this is not in the best interests of the patient and better management, better facilities or the removal of organisational constraints could have averted the situation.” Department for Health (2010) Eliminating Mixed Sex Accommodation.

Data is gathered and published monthly to report on any unjustified breaches of NHS sleeping accommodation guidelines. This includes any areas where patients are admitted and cared for on beds or trolleys, even if they do not stay overnight and includes day surgery units as well as clinical decision units; but excludes any areas where patients have not yet been admitted – such as accident and emergency cubicles.

Mixed sex accommodation breach source data can be found on the NHS Improvement website at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/mixed-sex-accommodation/msa-data/. This data is public sector information licensed to Blackwater Law under the Open Government Licence v3.0: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/.

Patients who are on a Care Programme Approach (CPA) should, within 7 days of discharge from mental health inpatient services, receive a follow-up. The national threshold for follow-ups within this timeframe is 95% and therefore any trust that has a figure below 95% is falling short of the guidance.

CPA relates to the package of care those with mental health problems may receive.

Follow-ups within 7 days of discharge are viewed as an important step in helping to reduce the number of suicides and cases of self-harm which typically peak immediately after a patient is discharged from a mental health inpatient service.

Mental health discharge and follow-up data is published quarterly and can be found on the NHS England website at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/mental-health-community-teams-activity/. This data is public sector information licensed to Blackwater Law under the Open Government Licence v3.0: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/.