Patient Safety

The Sign Up to Safety campaign aims to reduce incidences of avoidable harm by 50% in its first three years, saving 6,000 lives as a result.

City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust is delighted to announce that it has been awarded £775,000 through the Sign Up to Safety Campaign. This funding will support three initiatives, the details of which are given below.

A computerised system for the centralised monitoring of women in labour will be introduced into the hospital’s labour ward. This will build on the excellent care already provided by our maternity service, by ensuring that the safest possible care is provided to women in labour, while still maintaining their privacy in their own individual room.

The maternity service will also benefit from the introduction of additional high-tech support for women in the earlier stages of pregnancy. The funding will allow the Trust to purchase software which will further improve processes for the identification of high risk cases early in pregnancy, thus ensuring that mothers to be are given the best possible care throughout their pregnancy.

Finally, the funding will allow our Accident and Emergency Unit and our radiology service to improve reporting times for x-ray results during evenings and weekends, meaning that fractures can be identified quickly and treated appropriately.

The Trust is grateful to the NHS Litigation Authority for its support with these initiatives. Those wishing to learn more about the national Sign Up to Safety Campaign can visit www.signuptosafety.nhs.uk for more detail.