Invasive Procedures Safety Network

About the Network

In 2015, NHS England published the National Safety Standards for Invasive Procedures (NatSSIPs), which were created to bring together national and local learning from the analysis of Never Events, Serious Incidents and near misses in a set of recommendations enabling NHS organisations to create their own Local Safety Standards for Invasive Procedures (LocSSIPs) and provide safer care to their patients.

These standards support NHS organisations in providing safer care and reducing the number of patient safety incidents related to invasive procedures.

The aim of the Network is to support organisations to develop and implement their own LocSSIPs and encourage the sharing of best practice in provision of care for patients undergoing invasive procedures.

Invasive procedures include:

• All surgical and interventional procedures performed in operating theatres, outpatient treatment areas, labour ward delivery rooms, and other procedural areas within an organisation.
• Surgical repair of episiotomy or genital tract trauma associated with vaginal delivery.
• Invasive cardiological procedures such as cardiac catheterisation, angioplasty and stent insertion.
• Endoscopic procedures such as gastroscopy and colonoscopy. Interventional radiological procedures.
• Thoracic interventions such as bronchoscopy and the insertion of chest drains.
• Biopsies and other invasive tissue sampling.

We have brought together seven hospitals across five trusts within the UCLPartners geography to support the effective implementation of LocSSIPs and improvement of associated processes that will result in reductions in serious incidents and never events associated with invasive procedures.

The founding members of the Network are:

• University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
• Barts Health NHS Trust
• Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust

What does the network involve?

The Network will initially run from June 2019 to April 2020, with the potential to run beyond this period and with additional organisations joining.

The network activities are co-produced with the network members and offer education, peer support, expert speakers as well as tailored QI coaching to support the teams to develop and effectively implement their LocSSIPs. We will use the network approach to build expertise in undertaking this work to support further spread. As part of the network, teams will explore their current safety culture, review existing policies and develop their LocSSIPs, identify areas for improvement and start to implement the changes.

If you have any questions about the network, please contact Patient Safety Programme Manager, Valentina Karas: valentina.karas@uclpartners.com

Resources

Educational videos:

Watch the Barts Health NHS Trust’s clip about the NatSSIPs on YouTube:

NatSSIPs key documents:

• National safety standards for invasive procedures

Service specific checklists:
The checklists are provided courtesy of Barts Health NHS Trust’s NatSSIPs team and can be downloaded for your own use. We will be working on these to be editable soon.

• Code red black-checklist
• Maternity checklist
• Interventional radiology checklist
• Minor pain procedures checklist
• Ophthalmology Cataract checklist
• Ophthalmology procedures under anaesthetic checklist
• Endoscopy checklist
• Dermatology biopsy checklist
• Paediatrics Dental Outpatients checklist
• Paediatrics MRI under GA checklist
• Paediatrics Invasive procedure checklist
• Paediatrics Retinoblastoma EUAs
• Dental Biopsy SoftTissue checklist
• Dental Extractions checklist
• Dental Surgical checklist

Useful publications:

• Ten years of the Surgical Safety Checklist by T. G. Weiser and A. B. Haynes
• Leading across the health and care systems by the King’s Fund
• Avoid the dirty dozen common causes of human factors errors