1. The Trust has an ongoing action plan in place which addresses the areas outlined in the alert and requires adequate time to be implemented thoroughly within the organisation.
2. The Trust has implemented strict due diligence so as to ensure the requirements of this alert are fully met which includes a review of existing processes and controls, development of further control measures where required, agreement on roles and responsibilities of staff groups and of monitoring compliance through a relevant Committee or Group, a review of training needs and the development of policy, all of which, in addition to time spent undertaking suitable and sufficient consultation with relevant multi-disciplinary teams and the use of existing governance frameworks in place, would not have been properly achieved within the six month timeframe that was originally set within this alert.
3. When considering the above actions, it is anticipated the Trust will achieve compliance with the requirements of this alert before the end of the Q2 financial period (end Sept)
4. Since the introduction of this alert no incidents have been reported to date
5. A thorough review of the internal processes regarding the communication of patient safety alerts which resulted in the implementation of a more robust governance framework was already put in place prior to the notification of this patient safety alert. The Patient Safety Risk Assurance Committee (PSRAC) includes patient safety alerts as a standing agenda item of every meeting. The relevance of each patient safety alert is determined by members in a timely manner and where appropriate, a lead is nominated to ensure the alert requirements are enacted upon. The PSRAC performance manages each alert until members are satisfied with the actions taken.
Once all actions listed within have been completed, the alert is re-presented at the PSRAC for approval/sign off. Once approved, the final response is subsequently uploaded onto the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency Central Alerting System (MHRA CAS) website.
As previously mentioned, the delay in responding to this alert is due to the requirements of the alert necessitating adequate time to be implemented throughout the organisation.