WQ92966 (e) Tabled on 22/05/2024

How is the Welsh Government working with health boards in Wales to bring down the number of preventable deaths in hospitals?

Answered by Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care | Answered on 31/05/2024

All health boards are expected to apply the highest possible quality and patient safety standards to prevent harm or death to patients. All deaths of patients in hospitals are scrutinised by the national medical examiner service. If it is felt a death may have been caused or contributed to by the actions of the health board, then this must be reported and investigated in line with the NHS Wales nationally reportable incident process and health boards must ensure that lessons are learned.

Health boards should also be making use of other data such as the Risk Adjusted Mortality Index (RAMI) to identify possible trends and using this for service improvement.