The Australian healthcare system and the Berwick report

The Berwick Report highlights the main problems affecting patient safety in the NHS in the UK and makes recommendations to address them. Don Berwick from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, wrote the actual report titled "A promise to learn – a commitment to act. Improving the Safety of Patients in England" published by the  National Advisory Group on the Safety of Patients in England.

A recent article in Australian Health Review, titled "Lessons for the Australian healthcare system from the Berwick report" refers to common key recommendations that apply to both Australia and the UK. The authors, Lesley Russell and Paresh Dawda cannot be any clearer in what needs to be done in the following statement;  "Prime among these (recommendations) is that governments, bureaucrats, clinicians and administrators must work together to place the quality and safety of patient care above all other aims in the healthcare system. Performance targets and enforcement, although needed, are not the route to improvement; what is required is a change in culture to drive a system of care that is open to learning, capable of identifying and admitting its problems and acting to correct them, and where the patient's voice is always heard.

Staff members of MNCLHD can access the full text article from the Library E-Journals site on their desktop, or check with your local health library.
Russell, L., Dawda, P.  Lessons for the Australian healthcare system from the Berwick report. Australian Health Review 38(1), 2014: 106-8.