Reportable events

What is happening

From 1^st July, the 2023 National Adverse Events policy is being rolled out into general practice.

See more detail of what is expected of general practice here

Steps you can take now include

• Watch the HQSC video (3 minutes) to understand the updated definitions
• Review and update your policies, - in particular
  • Adverse events policy and procedure
  • The open disclosure policy
• Understand as a team how you would approach an adverse event in your practice
  • who is your key person?
  • Do they need training?

What should be reported?

As part of the changes brought about by the National Adverse Events policy implementation, it is now mandatory for all SAC1 or SAC2 events to be reported nationally.  This is to be used for learning purposes only so by sharing any of these incidents and some of the work that has been done as part of the incident management process we can learn for future events. 

Severity Assessment Codes (SACs) are used to rate the seriousness of harm. 

• SAC1 = severe; death or harm causing severe loss of function and/or requiring lifesaving intervention
• SAC2 = major; harm causing major loss of function and/or requiring significant intervention

View this diagragm on Responding to a SAC 1 or SAC 2 event in general practice