ABSTRACT
The Seven Steps to Patient Safety in General Practice are: build a safety culture, lead and support practice team, integrate risk management activity, promote reporting, involve and communicate with patients and the public, learn and share safety lessons, and implement solutions to prevent harm. For integrating risk management activity it is necessary to regularly review patient records so that areas of common harm such as delayed or missed diagnoses/treatment can be identified. For implementing solutions to prevent harm it is necessary to ensure that agreed actions to improve safety are documented, actioned and reviewed, and agree who should take responsibility for this, and to use technology, where appropriate, to reduce risk to patients. It is also necessary to involve both patients and staff as they can be key to ensuring the proposed changes are the right ones.
