Improving public safety in primary care

doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7337.0/e

Improving public safety in primary care

Safety is a major concern in four main areas of primary care: diagnosis, prescribing, communication, and organisational change.Wilson and Sheikh (p 584) report that of all adverse incidentsreported, 28% are related to problems with diagnosis. Up to 5%of all prescriptions might cause problems, and one third of thesecan be classified as serious. They believe that much can be donenow and propose seven steps towards improving safety: understandingsystems, leadership and culture, research, analysis, establishingbest practice, improving techniques and technology, and monitoringsafety.