Patient Safety Observatory reports

Incident reporting on its own can never tell us all we need to know about patient safety. Instead, a range of information sources and data is required to achieve a more comprehensive understanding.  

The Patient Safety Observatory was established by the National Reporting and Learning Service to draw upon a range of intelligence sources to identify and monitor patient safety incidents, and to highlight and prioritise areas for action. Sources include litigation bodies, industry and patients, and together they provide a more complete picture of patient safety across all healthcare sectors.  

A series of reports has been published by the Observatory. The reports: 

• consider the available data from reported patient safety incidents; and

• identify the learning from these in order to achieve safer healthcare. 

The Patient Safety Observatory reports are listed below.