Patient care and safety
Our approach
Our priority is to support our staff in the delivery of safe, reliable and effective care, with zero avoidable harm to our patients. So our Patient Safety Team works closely with colleagues right across the business, using national guidance to identify potential risks and investigate any situations where patient safety could have been compromised.
It’s a joined-up approach that has created a culture of transparency and openness, where everything we discover, we share – from the frontline to the leadership team. We continue to fully encourage reporting of errors and incidents in order to both learn and promote positive reinforcement.
Pharmacovigilance and product quality complaints
Pharmacovigilance (PV) is all about improving patient care and safety. As a clinical homecare provider, it’s important we have in place an effective system for capturing, monitoring and reporting incidents and complaints.
If you tell us you’re experiencing side effects, or you’re dissatisfied with a drug or product, we are obliged to report this to the manufacturer, and possibly the regulator, which we do in compliance with applicable law. PV requirements exist to allow us, manufacturers and competent regulatory bodies (such as the MHRA and other authorities) to ensure the safety of patients and comply with regulatory obligations.
Audit, risk and compliance
Effectively managing risk sits at the heart of our quality assurance framework. It’s embedded right across our company, from the way we procure and handle medicines to the way we care for our patients. It applies to entity-type risks relating to our company as a whole and it influences how we work with external stakeholders.
To help manage and mitigate risk, we carry out a whole range of compliance activities, centred on our ISO 9001 Quality Management System. We have our own internal audit regime, which is both risk-based and delivers compliance to regulatory standards.
Of course, sometimes events are beyond our control, but managing risk means being prepared. We’ve built a strong business continuity framework, and our contingency arrangements are regularly scrutinised by our regulators, the NHS and other key external stakeholders. All of these compliance activities help to deliver a continuous cycle of improvement, while ensuring the highest of standards for our patients.