Safety

Why safety matters

Safety is a core part of high‑quality care across all settings, including hospitals, community, and primary care.

• Around 1 in 10 people admitted to NHS Scotland hospitals experience unintentional harm.
• Harm can also occur in community settings, where care is increasingly delivered to people with complex needs, over long periods, often across multiple teams and organisations.
• About half of this harm may be preventable.

Patient safety means:

• reducing the risk of unnecessary harm wherever care is delivered
• making sure care is delivered well, reliably and in a way that supports independence and continuity of care

In community settings, safety is closely linked to effective coordination, timely access to care, clear communication, safe transitions between services, and support for people to manage their health safely at home or in a homely setting.

Safety and health inequalities

Some people are at higher risk of harm, including those who:

• face social disadvantage
• have multiple health conditions
• experience frailty, disability, or cognitive impairment
• struggle to access care due to geography, digital exclusion, or service fragmentation

A strong safety approach must take health inequalities into account and recognize the additional risks that can arise when care is delivered across different settings and providers.

Improving safety in NHS Scotland

The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) was created to enable Scotland’s health and care system to deliver safe care.

SPSP’s Essentials of Safe Care provides evidence-based guidance on the essential drivers of safe care:

• a people-led approach to the planning and delivery of safe care
• effective and inclusive communication
• leadership at all levels to support a culture of safety
• safe clinical and care processes

These principles are in all settings and particularly where care relies on strong relationships, professional judgement, and shared responsibility for safety.

Supporting safer care

Public Services Delivery Scotland provides training, resources, and tools through their Patient Safety Zone

The following resources from Healthcare Improvement Scotland also strengthen safety:

• The Quality of Care (QoC) review guidance
• National Framework for Learning from Adverse Events

These resources help teams to:

• review care consistently
• use data well
• learn openly
• understand what is working well
• identify risks early
• act before harm occurs