Oxford Professional Practice: Handbook of Patient Safety

Every day, doctors are faced with the challenge of keeping the people they treat safe and free from harm. Patient safety is a relatively new field of study, but the field is expanding and there is now better understanding of what is needed to measure and achieve safety for patients.

The Handbook of Patient Safety will empower doctors, nurses and other professionals to be able to develop safe clinical processes that allow proactive management and minimisation of risk, so that people are not harmed when they receive clinical care. It gives the rationale for patient safety, the theories behind the science of patient safety and then the practical methods that frontline staff can use on a daily basis to decrease harm.

Pocket sized and practical, this handbook is the ideal guide to support frontline staff and trainees, as well as all allied professionals in the name of patient safety. It reflects the World Health Organization's Patient Safety Curriculum and is written by international experts in their field who have specialist interests and direct expertise in dealing with patient safety issues. This book will demystify what is often seen as a complex topic, helping doctors understand the methods needed to provide safe care.

Peter Lachman M.D. MPH. M.B.B.Ch., FRCPCH, FCP (SA), FRCPI is Lead Faculty Quality Improvement at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) in Dublin, where he directs the Leadership and Quality programme to develop clinical leaders in quality improvement. He is co-founder and Chairperson of PIPSQC, the Paediatric International Patient Safety and Quality Community.

He was Chief Executive Officer of the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) from 1st May 2016 to 30th April 2021. Dr Lachman was a Health Foundation Quality Improvement Fellow at IHI in 2005-2006 and developed the safety programme at Great Ormond Street Hospital where he was the Deputy Medical Director with the lead for Patient Safety. He was also a Consultant Paediatrician at the Royal Free Hospital in London specialising in the challenge of long term conditions for children.

Dr. Anita Jayadev qualified from St. Bartholomews School of Medicine and Dentistry in London in 2005 and works as a respiratory consultant with an interest in sleep medicine. She has led several projects and developed new services to improve patient safety and care. Her achievements were recognised by the HSJ and she was awarded 'Rising Star in the NHS award' during her training and won the BMJ patient safety team of the year award during her Darzi Fellowship at Great Ormond Street Hospital. She continues to work as the clinical Quality Improvement lead at Wexham Park Hospital and is the Trust Sepsis lead.


Dr. John Brennan is a General Practitioner and was awarded a Diploma in Quality Improvement in Healthcare and Patient Safety with the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) in 2017. He served as Quality Improvement Scholar in Residence with the RCPI and the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) in 2016/17. As well as being an ISQua Fellow and Board Member, John currently works with the RCPI in designing and delivering Quality Improvement and Patient Safety education across a number of platforms, including in collaboration with the Health Service Executive. He is lead QI Faculty for the National COPD Improvement Collaborative in Ireland.


Dr. John Fitzsimons is a Paediatrician at Children's University Hospital, Temple St and Clinical Director with the Health Service Executive's (HSE) National Quality Improvement Team. He graduated from University College Dublin in 1996. He trained as a Patient Safety Officer with the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and was a fellow of the Improvement Faculty at the NHS Institute for Improvement & Innovation before returning to work in Ireland in 2010. He is course co-director of the Quality Improvement and Leadership Programme which has been run in partnership between the HSE and the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland (RCPI) since 2011.

Dr Jane Runnacles MBBS MA MRCPCH PGcert (healthcare leadership).

Jane is a Consultant in Ambulatory Paediatrics at St George's hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London and clinical governance lead for her department. She has an interest in acute paediatrics, simulation and quality improvement (QI). During her postgraduate training in London, she was awarded distinction in her MA in clinical education and spent a year as a Darzi clinical leadership fellow at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Jane is a Training Programme Director for the London School of Paediatrics and leads their leadership and QI education programmes.