Update 2 March 2023: Following the merger of NHS Digital and NHS England on 1st February 2023 we are reviewing the future presentation of the NHS Outcomes Framework indicators. As part of this review, the annual publication which was due to be released in March 2023 has been delayed. Further announcements about this dataset will be made on this page in due course.
The number of patient safety incidents reported to the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) by provider organisations, per 100,000 population.
A patient safety incident is defined as ‘any unintended or unexpected incident(s) that could have, or did, lead to harm for one or more person(s) receiving NHS funded healthcare’.
This indicator aims to measure the number of reported patient safety incidents across NHS care settings. The aim is for incidence reporting to increase as the culture of reporting all incidents spreads more widely across the NHS. The ultimate goal is that the number of reported incidents remains steady or decreases, as the habit of reporting incidents becomes routine and these are learnt from.
Some different patterns have been observed in the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) patient safety data which are likely to have been impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Statistics from the period Apr - Jun 2020 onwards should also be interpreted with care.
Legacy unique identifier: P01796