Patient safety top of UK health care agenda, says CMO

This month, more than 70 health care specialists and Members of Parliament attended an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Patient Safety meeting at the UK House of Commons to discuss and debate patient safety for the year ahead.

The meeting provided an opportunity for Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer, to set the wider context of Safety First, a report he commissioned and published in December 2006, to reconsider the organization arrangements currently in place to ensure that patient safety is at the heart of the health care agenda.

Sir Liam opened the meeting by outlining four key areas that needed to be addressed in order to improve patient safety within the National Health Service.