Following the development of Patient Safety Work Streams across Noble’s Hospital, a new Patient Safety and Quality Manager has been appointed. Sue Waddecar heads up the dedicated Patient Safety and Quality Team at Noble’s Hospital which looks at all types of care and treatment processes with the aim of keeping patients safe.
The World Health Organisation defines patient safety as ‘The prevention of errors and adverse effects to patients associated with health care.’ Put simply, this means proactively preventing harm to patients, minimising risk and keeping patients safe.
Minister Hon Howard Quayle MHK, said:
“I welcome the recent appointment of Sue Waddecar as Patient Safety and Quality Manager, and know that with all her experience she has an abundance of skills necessary to drive through enhancements, changes and improvements in patient safety and quality of care. All the Department’s healthcare professionals are aware that patient safety is everyone’s responsibility, and they are supported across Noble’s Hospital by the Patient Safety and Quality Team. Moving into the future, the implementation of the recommendations of the Francis Report, the Beamans review and the ongoing quality assurance reviews by the West Midlands Quality Review Service will strengthen governance and standards, and the Patient Safety and Quality Team will be spearheading much of the work.”
Sue Waddecar said:
“I am delighted to take up this role here at Noble’s Hospital. I recognise the different challenges that the hospital faces compared to large NHS Trusts in the UK and look forward to working with healthcare professionals and staff to support the ongoing changes. The role will include learning from patient feedback, both compliments and complaints; helping doctors and nurses to examine quality and best practice standards – how well we are doing against standards and how we can make things better. The aim is to improve quality of care and treatment, and for every patient to have a good experience whether as an inpatient or attending an outpatient appointment or undergoing a diagnostic test.”
Examples of ongoing patient safety initiatives that Sue will lead include a review of the complaints handling processes, serious patient safety reviews, learning from incident reporting, risk management and the support of professional development and clinical leadership across all clinical specialities and levels by encouraging training and learning.
Before moving to the Island in December last year, Sue’s previous role was in a large UK NHS Foundation Trust, where she was General Manager with a wide range of responsibilities such as Theatres, Day Care, Anaesthetics, Pre-operative services, Critical Care, Endoscopy, Out Patients, Health Records, Booking Services and Patient Referral.
Sue has held many management roles with responsibilities for clinical and non-clinical risk management, clinical and organisational governance, complaints, patient safety and experience, claims and litigation. She has also been responsible for internal and external assessments and accreditation such as Care Quality Commission and the NHS Litigation Authority Risk Management Standards assessments.
Sue has worked in the NHS since 1987; she trained as a nurse and has held a variety of nursing posts including ward sister, matron and department manager. Sue’s nursing experience covers a wide range of specialties including general surgery, urology, surgical high dependency and general outpatient clinics.
