Guidance for radiotherapy providers on improving patient safety.
UKHSA are delighted to announce the publication of Advancing Safer Radiotherapy: Guidance for radiotherapy providers on improving patient safety.
Advancing Safer Radiotherapy has been developed by the multi-disciplinary radiotherapy community to facilitate continual improvement and enhance patient safety.
The purpose of this document is twofold. The first 4 chapters seek to enable a deeper understanding of state-of-the-art safety tools and practices available and to offer guidance on their practical application and implications for radiotherapy professionals and patients. The guidance builds upon the Towards Safer Radiotherapy recommendations to reflect and develop contemporary approaches to patient safety.
Secondly, the final 3 chapters advocate for the positioning of the patient front and centre in radiotherapy safety. They consider the merits of patient engagement in all areas of practice and encourage the health professional to critically reflect on how they can influence the future shape of radiotherapy services for the benefit of patients.
Whilst a narrative arc runs through the entire document and there is considerable value in reading from start to finish, each chapter is designed as a standalone and can be perused in isolation by a reader interested in a specific chapter’s subject.
The Patient Safety in Radiotherapy Steering Group (PSRT) would like to thank the working party members for their commitment and support in the development of this national guidance.
Safer Radiotherapy: national patient safety radiotherapy event taxonomy:
User guide for radiotherapy providers on the application of the national patient safety radiotherapy event taxonomy.
UKHSA are delighted to announce the publication of Safer Radiotherapy: national patient safety radiotherapy event taxonomy user guide.
Event learning systems are a widely accepted safety tool advocated internationally by professional groups, bodies, agencies, and regulators in radiotherapy. The national voluntary reporting of radiotherapy events (RTE) began in 2010 and has become well established across the UK.
This publication provides practical guidance to radiotherapy providers on the application of a refined national patient safety radiotherapy event taxonomy. Its use allows for the classification and categorisation of patient safety events, utilising a refined taxonomy to better reflect contemporary practice and consolidate all RTE terminology and taxonomies into one document.
Additionally, an excel spreadsheet has been made available to assist providers with the integration of the refined taxonomy into local reporting and learning systems. The spreadsheet may be downloaded from here.
The Patient Safety in Radiotherapy Steering Group (PSRT) would like to thank the working party members for their commitment and support in the development of this national user guide.
