Yorkshire and Humber PSTRC Winter Newsletter 2021

Take a look at our image gallery showing highlights from the Centre’s contribution to World Patient Safety Day.

The third annual World Patient Safety Day took place on 17 September.  Each year, the World Health Organisation selects a ‘theme’ to highlight a priority area for action. This year’s theme is ‘Safe maternal and newborn care’. Every day, 810 women and 6700 newborns lose their lives. While the greatest burden of these deaths is in low and middle income countries, confidential enquiry report in the UK highlight that maternal mortality is higher in older women, those living in the most deprived areas and amongst women from ethnic minority groups.  Most of these deaths are preventable through the provision of safe, effective and high quality care.

Although coverage of evidence -based interventions such as antenatal care and skilled birth attendance have increased rapidly, the quality and safety of care provided to mothers and babies is often lacking. Reducing the safety risks during pregnancy and around the time of birth is critical for maternal and newborn survival.

In support of World Patient Safety Day, our Research Fellows; Dr Helen Smith and Dr Siobhan McHugh visited the labour ward, birth centre and the neonatal unit at Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust to gather feedback and ideas from staff and patients around how quality and safety can be improved in maternity. Suggestion boxes were placed in the neonatal and labour wards to encourage feedback from staff and patients to identify common, recurring and preventable problems.

To learn more about the work carried out by the researchers in the Yorkshire Quality and Safety Research Group (YQSR),which contributes to our understanding, and implementation, of safe maternal and newborn health care and services, please click here to read the World Patient Safety Day blog.

We work closely with colleagues in the Patient Safety Collaborative, and the Improvement Academy, to facilitate translation of research findings into a range of initiatives to improve safety for mothers and newborns.

Please see below key highlights from World Patient Safety Day at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The research described in this newsletter is funded by the National National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (NIHR Yorkshire and Humber PSTRC). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health and Social Care.