SLaM achieves highest patient safety standard

SLaM has achieved the highest standard for patient safety – and saved over £300,000 a year in the process. 

The NHS Litigation Authority, which handles negligence claims and works to improve risk management practices in the NHS, undertook a rigorous assessment of SLaM, under its Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST).  

The assessment looked at SLaM’s performance against 50 standards including governance; competent and capable workforce; safe environment; clinical care and learning from experience. SLaM did particularly well in the safe environment, clinical care and learning from experience standards, scoring full marks in all three.  

SLaM is the only mental health trust to currently hold Level 3 which is the highest possible standard. The Trust pays an annual premium to cover legal costs which can result in hundreds of thousands of pound damages if the claims are upheld. Improving SLAM’s risk rating means a safer environment for patients and a lower NHSLA premium. Achieving Level 3 has qualified SLaM for a 30 per cent Risk Management Discount - a saving of £315,000 per year.  

Hilary McCallion, Director of Nursing and Education, said: "To achieve Level 3 took a lot of dedication and hard work by our Standards, Clinical Audit and Patient Safety Teams. And this has ensured that the systems and processes are in place and embedded within the organisation to enable us to practice safely".    

The project was led by Cliff Bean, Director of Patient Safety, and the Standards team including Shahnaz Khan, Grace Drewell and Nazia Islam. The project was supported by Angela Pengilly, Consultant, Rosie Peregrine Jones, Carolyn Green and the Clinical Audit and Effectiveness Team.    

The NHSLA assessors said: “It was evident that the great majority of staff involved in this assessment process were committed to the management of risk in this organisation, had a very good understanding of their responsibilities and were able to show how well the systems and processes in place within the organisation worked in a cohesive way.”