Patient Safety Net

Queensland Health is committed to ensuring the delivery of safe and quality healthcare that supports consumers to achieve better health outcomes.

Patient Safety Net has been developed to provide staff with a consistent, streamlined and transparent process for raising a patient safety concern they feel has not been addressed through the standard reporting processes in a timely, proper or sufficient way.

Queensland Health recognises the important role that all staff play as custodians of patient safety. Patient Safety Net will help strengthen clinical governance and improve patient safety in our health services, by addressing some of the existing barriers to reporting and responding to patient safety concerns.

A patient safety concern is defined as potential or actual harm, which may be physical and/or psychological. Patient Safety Net encourages local identification and resolution of a patient safety concern and complements existing patient safety systems. It does not replace, nor negate existing clinical incident management processes, and is not appropriate for urgent patient safety concerns or clinical deterioration.

How staff will access Patient Safety Net

Patient Safety Net can be used by all Queensland Health staff including contractors, agency staff, students and volunteers, and encourages staff to seek local resolution first where possible. Patient Safety Net can 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 Patient Safety Stewards who will triage and review the concerns.

Alternate complaint avenues

• Consumers and members of the public will continue to use existing pathways to make a complaint or raise concerns about their care while in hospital when their health condition is getting worse and they feel they are not being heard.
• If Queensland Health staff have concerns about the performance of another health professional or non-clinical worker, these should be discussed in the first instance with the Line Manager or Supervisor. The Line Manager or Supervisor is responsible for escalating a concern of this nature through the correct local processes.
• If concerns exist about the clinical performance of any health professional, either registered or unregistered, and there is a risk to the public, the matter can be reported directly to the Office of the Health Ombudsman.

Patient Safety Net Pilot

• Patient Safety Net has been progressively implemented in four Hospital and Health Services as follows:

• All Pilot sites now have Patient Safety Stewards to receive and act on reported patient safety concerns.
• These sites have  undertaken or are currently undertaking a patient safety culture assessment in order to assist with evaluation of the impact of Patient Safety Net.
• A Communicating for Safety training program will be made available to all Hospital and Health Service sites. There will be a staged roll-out for this training, commencing in early 2024
• Patient Safety Net will be evaluated in mid-2024 and be considered for state-wide implementation.

For more information contact the Patient Safety Net team at patient_safety_net@health.qld.gov.au