Attitudes to the identification and reporting of significant events in general practice

The new National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) aims to facilitate the mandatory reporting of relevant significant events. A questionnaire survey of 617 general practitioners was undertaken and 466 responses were received (76 per cent). A minority (18 per cent) agreed the reporting of adverse incidents should be mandatory, while a majority (73 per cent) agreed that they would be selective in their reporting in a mandatory system. Most (75 per cent) favoured a local anonymised system of reporting. A difficulty in determining when an event is “significant” was acknowledged by 41 per cent of respondents and 30 per cent agreed significant events were often not acted on. Less experienced respondents were more likely to have difficulty in determining when an event is significant (p = 0.01). The success of the NPSA system may be obstructed by the mandatory requirement to participate and in the difficulty for some in determining when an event is “significant”.