Protocol for a non-randomised feasibility study evaluating a codesigned patient safety guide in primary care.

INTRODUCTION: Patients and carers should be active partners in patient safety with healthcare professionals and be empowered to use personalised approaches to identify safety concerns and work together to prevent them. This protocol paper details a study to examine the feasibility of a multicomponent intervention to involve patients and/or carers in patient safety in primary care in the UK. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is a two-phase, non-randomised feasibility mixed methods pragmatic study of a patient safety guide for primary care (PSG-PC). 8 general practices will recruit 120 patient and/or carer participants. All patient and/or carer participants will receive the PSG-PC. It will examine the feasibility and acceptability of the PSG-PC in primary care settings in patients aged 18 years or older who attend appointments at general practice with health professionals four or more times per year as either patients or carers. It will identify secondary outcomes for improving patient safety, health status and patient empowerment, and reducing health service utilisation over 6 months between baseline and 6-month follow-ups. The findings will inform whether a main effectiveness trial is feasible and, if so, how it should be designed, and how many patients and practices will be needed. The study will be undertaken between January 2020 and September 2021. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval was obtained from the National Health Service London-West London and Gene Therapy Advisory Committee Research Ethics Committee (reference: 19/LO/1289). Research findings will be disseminated with participating general practices and shared in a range of different ways to engage different audiences, including presenting at international and national conferences, publishing in open-access, peer-reviewed journals and facilitating dissemination workshops within local communities with patients, carers and healthcare professionals. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN90222092.

Developing a patient safety guide for primary care: A co-design approach involving patients, carers and clinicians.

BACKGROUND: Patients and carers should be actively involved in patient safety and empowered to use person-centred approaches where they are asked to both identify safety concerns and partner in preventing them. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to co-design a patient safety guide for primary care (PSG-PC) to support patients and carers to address key patient safety questions and identify key points where they can make their care safer. The objectives were to i) identify when and how patients and carers can be involved in primary care patient safety, and ii) identify the relevant information to include in the PSG-PC. DESIGN: An experience-based co-design approach. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: We conducted three workshops with patients, carers, community pharmacists and general practitioners to develop and refine the PSG-PC. RESULTS: Participants identified both explicit and implicit issues of primary care patient safety especially relating to technical and relational components of involving patients and carers. The importance of communication, understanding roles and responsibilities, and developing partnerships between patients and health-care providers were considered essential for actively involving patients in patient safety. Co-developing the PSG-PC provided insight to improve care to develop the PSG-PC. DISCUSSION: The PSG-PC is the first guide to be developed for primary care, co-designed with patients, carers, general practitioners and pharmacists. The PSG-PC will support patients and carers to partner with health-care professionals to improve patient safety addressing international and national priorities to continuously improve patient safety.

Identifying primary care patient safety research priorities in the UK: a James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership.

OBJECTIVES: To identify the top 10 unanswered research questions for primary care patient safety research. DESIGN: A modified nominal group technique. SETTING: UK. PARTICIPANTS: Anyone with experience of primary care including: patients, carers and healthcare professionals. 341 patients and 86 healthcare professionals submitted questions. MAIN OUTCOMES: A top 10, and top 30, future research questions for primary care patient safety. RESULTS: 443 research questions were submitted by 341 patients and 86 healthcare professionals, through a national survey. After checking for relevance and rephrasing, a total of 173 questions were collated into themes. The themes were largely focused on communication, team and system working, interfaces across primary and secondary care, medication, self-management support and technology. The questions were then prioritised through a national survey, the top 30 questions were taken forward to the final prioritisation workshop. The top 10 research questions focused on the most vulnerable in society, holistic whole-person care, safer communication and coordination between care providers, work intensity, continuity of care, suicide risk, complex care at home and confidentiality. CONCLUSIONS: This study was the first national prioritisation exercise to identify patient and healthcare professional priorities for primary care patient safety research. The research priorities identified a range of important gaps in the existing evidence to inform everyday practice to address primary care patient safety.