Radiotherapy errors and near misses biennial report now live

Sixth in series

Published: 22 June 2020 Radiotherapy

The sixth radiotherapy errors and near misses: biennial report is now available to view.

Sixth in a series by Public Health England (PHE), the report provides an overview of Radiotherapy Error (RTE) data reported voluntarily to the National Reporting and Learning System and directly to PHE from January 2018 until December 2019.

For the first time this two-year report includes learning from across all taxonomies, including the classification, pathway coding, safety barriers, methods of detection and causative factor taxonomy.

It includes trend analysis, enables benchmarking exercises, and facilitates a comparison of local analysis with the national picture.

UK inspectorates for IR(ME)R also shared anonymised synopsis of closed reportable radiation incidents from the same period, which is included in the analysis.

“Reporting of RTE will only be effective if there is a willingness to learn from errors and to alter practice accordingly,” the report states.

“Employers should share the outcomes of analyses with all relevant staff and apply lessons learnt to mitigate these events in future.”

Biennial radiotherapy error data analysis and learning report: January 2018 to December 2019