Leaders and front line staff come together to focus on how winter pressures will affect decisions and clinical risk

Over 100 leaders and front line staff from health and social care across BSW ICS came together recently for a half day summit to focus on how winter pressures will affect the decisions and clinical risk staff may need to take in terms of patient care and outcomes.

The purpose of the afternoon was to help understand the potential impact individual clinical decisions have not only on an individual patient but on the wider system, including risk of patient harm elsewhere.

The summit presented an opportunity to work through what alternative decisions could be made to affect different outcomes for patients and what support staff need to enable them to make those decisions and manage that risk differently.

The event also helped attendees understand the perception of risk in each area of practice, how we can compare those different risks and how we can increase the visibility of potential patient harm in each organisation to inform system decisions around risk sharing.

Dr Amanda Webb, Chief Medical Officer, BSW Integrated Care Board said

“The decision a clinician makes for one patient not only impact that patient, but also the wider system and potentially can cause patient harm elsewhere. So we want to start encouraging health and care professionals to feel comfortable and supported enough to be able to make a decision that carries just a little bit more risk that will have a more positive impact on the rest of the system.”