ROYAL Surrey County Hospital has pledged to improve patient safety as part of the national campaign, Sign up to Safety.

It is one of a set of national initiatives in England to help the NHS improve the safety of patient care. Collectively and cumulatively these initiatives aim to reduce avoidable harm by 50 per cent and support the ambition to save 6,000 lives.

So far 300 NHS organisations have pledged support to this growing movement and are committed to improve the safety of healthcare through locally-owned and self-directed Safety Improvement Plans.

Ian Brandon, Royal Surrey’s head of patient safety and quality, said: “By joining Sign up to Safety, we are promising all patients and staff in Royal Surrey County Hospital that we are placing the safety of patient care above all else.

“We will achieve this by focusing on the areas we know can be improved to make care safer. We are committed to supporting our staff to be open with patients about the potential for things to go wrong and, most importantly, to continually learn from incidents in order to improve.”

Suzette Woodward, Sign up to Safety campaign director, said: “Our ambition is for the whole NHS in England to become the safest healthcare system in the world and Royal Surrey County Hospital is playing a critical part in helping to achieve this.

“We all recognise that healthcare carries some risk and while everyone working in the NHS works hard every day to reduce this risk, harm still happens. Whenever possible, we must do all we can to deliver harm-free care for each and every patient.”

The five Sign up to Safety pledges are put safety first; continually learn; be honest; collaborate; and be supportive.