On Monday, Queensland Health will launch the pilot for a confidential path for staff to voice their concerns.
Four Queensland hospital and health services will trial a new clinical safety process for staff to escalate concerns about patient care.
Patient Safety Net will be piloted by Townsville HHS, Gold Coast HHS, Central Queensland HHS and Children’s Health Queensland.
The pathway includes a hotline and can be used by all Queensland Health staff, including contractors, agency staff, students and volunteers to voice concerns in which there is potential or actual harm to a patient or consumer. It could be physical or psychological harm, or both.
According to the pathway’s website it will be for “patient safety concerns that have not been resolved locally”.
“Patient Safety Net provides further clarity on how to escalate these concerns. Escalation of concerns will be activated by staff (the reporter) via phone, email, face-to-face or via an online portal. The reporter can choose to raise a concern anonymously or request that their details remain confidential. Concerns will be received by new roles within the Hospital and Health Services (HHS) known as Patient Safety Stewards who will triage and review the concerns.”
Each HHS will appoint patient safety stewards to manage concerns and drive the pilot, which will be launched on 9 October.
Executive committees will also be convened at each HHS to oversee concerns that have been escalated to stewards and ensure effective resolutions are achieved in a timely way.
The pilot will be evaluated in mid-2024, with plans to roll the program out across Queensland Health and the Queensland Ambulance Service if it is effective.
Queensland hospitals admit almost a million patients every year and provide more than 1.5 million emergency services. Each year there are also around 3.5 million outpatient services.
“This pathway has been developed to allow staff the opportunity to report any concerns about local patient safety issues that they feel may not be being managed in a timely or sufficient manner,” said Queensland Minister for Health Shannon Fentiman.
“It is important staff feel supported to escalate any concerns they may have and have the option to remain anonymous.
“This new pathway streamlines the complaint process through providing staff access to a patient safety steward either in their HHS or in the Department of Health.
“It is widely acknowledged in the health sector that higher incident reporting is an indication of a positive and transparent safety culture, that ultimately leads to better patient care.
“It is critical that we continue investing in our staff and supporting systems of care to ensure we can improve safety, reliability and patient experience.”
