Breast implants being given barcodes by NHS to try and ‘revolutionise’ patient safety
- The Department of Health will give every surgical item a barcode to track it
- Products are scanned alongside a patient’s wristband to match them together
- It is hoped the £12 million system will help to prevent any possible human errors
- Early results from 6 pilot NHS hospitals suggest it has the potential to save lives
- And it may also help the health service save up to £1 billion over the next 7 years
Stephen Matthews For Mailonline
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Breast implants are being given barcodes to see if it could ‘revolutionise’ patient safety.
Using the technology made famous in retail stores, the Department of Health hope to record replacement hips, surgical tools and medication.
Hospital staff will be able to scan each product used alongside the patient’s identity wristband – also fitted with a code – to match them together.
It is hoped the system will prevent any scandals like the PIP breast implant scare of 2010 – where more than 50,000 women in the UK were fitted with faulty ones.
Using the technology made famous in retail stores, the NHS hope to record every surgical item in an attempt to save lives by avoiding human errors
As part of the Government’s £12 million project Scan4Safety, each code can be scanned to show exactly which member of staff administered each treatment, at what time and where.
Early results from six pilot NHS hospitals, Derby, Leeds, Salisbury, Cornwall, North Tees and Plymouth, suggest the scheme has the potential to save lives.
While it is also hoped to save the health service up to £1 billion over the next seven years if it’s rolled out thoroughly.
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Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: ‘This is a world first in healthcare – and a vital part of this government’s drive to make the NHS the safest and most transparent healthcare system in the world.
‘Using simple barcodes that major industries rely on every day will help to transform standards of care – before, during and after patients have treatment, at the same time as freeing up resources for care by reducing waste.’
The scheme removes human inventory errors, and registers ‘use-by’ dates on medicines and equipment.
Hospital staff will be able to scan each product used alongside the patient’s identity wristband – also fitted with a code – to match them together
This allows for stock to be managed easily, giving patients the most appropriate medicines.
Scan4Safety can also be used to see how effective different equipment is, for example, if one type of hip replacement wears out more easily than another, improving patient outcomes and streamlining the health system.
Tim Wells, a consultant cardiologist at Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘The recent implementation of the Scan4Safety project in cardiology provides us for the very first time complete traceability of products such as implantable medical devices used with our patients.
‘Knowledge is power – not only does this provide us with a level of data and insight that can be used to better challenge clinical practice and variation, helping us to reduce inefficiencies and improve patient experience and outcomes – more importantly it ultimately helps to safeguard our patients from avoidable harm.
‘In the event of a product recall, we can now easily and quickly track an affected product to the right patient.’
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