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The journey towards safer radiotherapy: are we on a road to nowhere?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 September 2020

Michael Graveling Open the ORCID record for Michael Graveling [Opens in a new window]
Michael Graveling*
Affiliation:
South East Midlands Oncology Centre, Radiotherapy Department, Northampton General Hospital, Cliftonville, Northampton, UK
*
Author for correspondence: Michael Graveling, South East Midlands Oncology Centre, Radiotherapy Department, Northampton General Hospital, Cliftonville, Northampton, UK. Email: Michael.Graveling@ngh.nhs.uk
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Abstract

Background:

Harnessing available knowledge and learning from our errors are prerequisites of delivering on the challenge of improving patient safety. Towards Safer Radiotherapy, published in 2008, was a response from the UK’s (UK) radiotherapy community to concerns arising from high profile errors. The report was a driver for the development of a national reporting and learning system for radiotherapy.

Materials and methods:

A literature review was conducted covering the years from 2009 to 2020. Search terms used were radiotherapy errors, patient safety, incident learning, human factors and trend analysis. A total of 10 papers reported recommendations or implementation of changes to service delivery models following systematic error analysis. None of these were from UK service providers.

Conclusions:

Twelve years on from the publication of Towards Safer Radiotherapy, there is little evidence of impact on safety culture within the UK radiotherapy community. Although the UK has a large radiotherapy error dataset, there remain unanswered questions about the impact on the safety culture in radiotherapy.

Type
Original Article
Information
Journal of Radiotherapy in Practice , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 26 - 30
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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