Quality and patient safety

Patient feedback is very important to us. It helps us to check that we are doing things right, listen to any concerns and use patient’s suggestions to make changes and improvements to our services.

We have a Patient Engagement Strategy, which explains how we use patient feedback, how we engage with patients and our commitment to co-producing our services.

Find out more about our approach to patient experience and engagement here.

We know that we may not always get things right for our patients. If we receive a complaint, this is fully investigated. Where possible and appropriate, we make and follow any recommendations for changes which arise.

We provide information to patients and to staff in lots of different ways, including access to interpreters and written information in different languages.

Patient safety is essential. The delivery of safe care is a key priority for Spectrum across all our services. We use national guidance and frameworks to develop our systems and processes, which ensures we are using the most up to date evidence to inform safe practice and maintain the delivery of high quality care for our patients. By using these frameworks, we aim to prevent accidents and reduce the risk of incidents happening. Where they do occur, we will investigate.

We involve staff and patients in developing a positive safety culture. Any feedback is used positively to implement change or introduce safety measures where relevant for each setting. Examples of improvements which have been made include safe management of medication and the use of equipment to prevent accidents.

Spectrum uses a dedicated incident reporting and management system which allows us to identify safety concerns quickly. This helps us to prevent avoidable harm and consistently improve our safety processes.

During 2023-24 there will be a change to the way we manage incidents, with the implementation of the NHS Patient Safety Incident Review Framework. Using the new approach, we are working with staff and patients to develop some different ways of reviewing incidents. This includes holding learning events, case reviews and discussions, with the option to undertake a full investigation if required.

Ensuring our staff have the right knowledge, skills and experience is a key part of delivering safe, high quality care. All our staff complete training which is relevant to their roles, using national training programmes and courses which provide the practical skills needed for their jobs.

Spectrum uses audits to check that all services are delivering care in line with national standards, our own policies and high expectations. We look at the audit results and listen to what patients are telling us about services so that we can be confident that services are safe, caring and responsive.

Confidentiality of information is a priority for all our teams. We are committed to maintaining high and legally required standards for keeping safe any information we hold about our patients and our staff, including patient healthcare records.

We have a named person who is responsible for ensuring the organisation keeps all our information safe, known as the Caldicott Guardian.

The Caldicott Guardian is defined as a senior person responsible for protecting the confidentiality of people’s health and care information and making sure it is used properly. All NHS organisations and local authorities which provide services mush have Caldicott Guardian.

Spectrum’s Caldicott Guardian is our Director of Nursing and Quality Assurance.