Challenges to improving patient safety in the NHS

Evidence‐based practice is dominating the NHS. However, when the need to reform risk management reached crisis point, the UK Government and Department of Health responded by investing in a new national body (the National Patient Safety Agency) and strategies based around mainly non‐medical research. This report demonstrates the unsuitability of these extrapolated ideas within the setting of the health service and highlights the inefficient use of resources in a system that is barely coping with existing demands.