NHS England announces a further £150m to improve patient safety and care

NHS England announces a further £150m to improve patient safety and care Hospitals are to get a £150 million boost to help improve patient safety and help make the NHS the safest healthcare system in the world.

NHS England has worked with Monitor to adjust the price hospitals are paid to treat patients, in recognition that some hospitals will incur additional costs.

They expect it to be used to both improve safety and ensure patients are treated with care and compassion, such as employing extra nurses.  The money is to come out of Clinical Commissioning Groups usual financial settlement.

The change to the tariff, worth approximately £150 million, sits alongside work NHS England is already implementing, such as the recruitment of 5,000 patient safety fellows, establishment of 15 locally-led patient safety groups, re-launch of the patient safety alerts system and the NHS Safety Thermometer data collection, which help inform improvements.

Jane Cummings, Chief Nursing Officer and national director responsible for patient safety for NHS England said:

“Today’s agreement is good news for patients and good news for the NHS.  The funding will help hospitals do more to ensure all patients are treated with dignity and compassion, every time.

“It is important that all our hospitals put patient safety first.

“Whilst it is up to providers to agree how they spend this money, I expect that more nurses will be top of the list for many.

“There has been a big debate about staffing levels in hospitals and we need to ensure we get the right number of nurses, in the right place at the right time.  Trusts must ensure every part of the hospital has enough nurses and midwives to give patients the best possible care.”

This tariff adjustment is being made for acute services only. NHS England