International Covid-19 support for Radiographers and Radiological Technologists

The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) in the UK recognised that reducing and, where possible, eliminating errors in matching patients with their care is one of the key ways to improve patient safety. NHS Improvement (NHSI)’s Recommendations from National Patient Safety Agency alerts that remain relevant to the Never Events list 2018 include two safer practice notices calling for the use of standardised wristbands in all acute hospital in-patient settings. The alerts highlight the importance of patient identification wristbands displaying information that accurately identifies the patient and matches them to their care and the requirement that the wristband demonstrates only four core identifiers:

• last name
• first name
• date of birth
• NHS number (if the NHS number is not immediately available, a temporary number should be used until it is)