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Home > Our Work > Patient Safety in Primary Health Care

Background

In Australia the most common exposure of people to the health care system occurs at the primary health care level. Almost one in five people visit a general practitioner and one in ten visit an allied health professional in any given two week period.

Primary health care is a diverse field involving many different types of health professionals such as doctors, nurses, allied health workers, dentists, pharmacists, and pathology and imaging professionals. Primary health care encompasses services provided by public and private health care organisations, and may be delivered through a range of different access points such as a practice, clinic, at home, in the community or at schools.

A broad range of professional quality improvement activities are undertaken in primary health care. However, there is limited evidence regarding patient safety and the effectiveness of patient safety solutions in primary health care. Much of the Australian research that exists focuses on incidents and errors in general practice or medicine safety risks in the community. Little is known of patient risks within the wider primary health care sector.

There is general agreement among stakeholders that given the size of the sector, the breadth of services provided, the frequency with which people access these services and the important role that primary health care plays in influencing the health of the population it is important that the care provided through primary health care is safe and that risks of unnecessary harm are minimised.

This program seeks to support understanding and awareness of patient safety issues in primary health care including the research, tools and strategies that can be used to address patient safety issues.

Patient Safety in Primary Health Care Discussion Paper and Consultation

As a first step in this program of work the Commission developed a discussion paper on Patient Safety in Primary Health Care which sought to broadly map potential patient safety issues, the type of work that is currently being undertaken both nationally and internationally to mitigate patient safety risks, the national primary health care policy environment and identification of key stakeholder groups

Consultation process and feedback

An open consultation process was held to seek comment and feedback on the discussion paper in late 2010 and over sixty written submissions were provided as part of this process. Respondents represented a broad range of primary health care professions and disciplines, as well as including a number of consumer perspectives.

The responses to the discussion paper raised many issues specific to patient safety in primary health care, as well as a number of broader issues that reflect general concerns with the state of primary health care in Australia.

The Commission has prepared a Patient Safety in Primary Health Care (PDF 231 KB) Consultation Report which describes respondent’s comments, identifies key themes and outlines some of the more specific responses to the questions identified in the discussion paper. The report solely reflects respondents comments on the paper and the issues raised.

Links

Patient Safety in Primary Health Care: A review of the literature

Patient Safety in Primary Health Care Discussion Paper

Submissions to Patient Safety in Primary Health Care consultation process

Patient Safety in Primary Health Care (PDF 231 KB)

Development of practice-level indicators for primary health care

Australian Safety and Quality Framework for Healthcare

Patient-centred care: Improving quality and safety by focusing care on patients and consumers

Contact

Naomi Poole, Senior Project Officer
(02) 9126 3600

Email: mail@safetyandquality.gov.au

Updated: 07 January, 2011

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