Campaign Briefing
The 1000 Lives Campaign aims to improve patient safety and increase healthcare quality across Wales.
It will be launched on Monday 21 April, 2008 and takes forward a number of actions from the Healthcare Quality Improvement Plan: Designed to Deliver 2006 (QuIP) and presents an opportunity to involve front-line staff in the quality and safety agenda.
The aim is to save 1000 lives and to avoid up to 50,000 episodes of harm in Welsh healthcare in two years from the launch date in April.
The Campaign will build on the excellent work already underway in Wales and accelerate these efforts around patient safety and quality of healthcare.
It will openly acknowledge the issues surrounding patient safety in healthcare and raise the profile of the actions which are being taken now to ensure the NHS provides as safe and effective services as possible.
It will be a national effort as all the NHS Trusts and Local Health Boardsthroughout Wales have enrolled for the Campaign. They will be working together to implement a number of life-saving interventions to reduce avoidable risks and harm associated with healthcare.
The evidence-based content areas, which have been developed by clinicians working together in Wales, involve work in the following areas:
- Improving Leadership for Quality
- Reducing Healthcare Associated Infections
- Improving Critical Care
- Improving Medicines Management
- Reducing Surgical Complications
- Improving General Medical and Surgical Care
Two development areas will also be tested during the Campaign: Transforming Care at the Bedside and Pressure Ulcers.
Trusts and LHBs will have the responsibility of introducing agreed interventions and will commit to monitoring their impact and sharing data during the two year Campaign period. Support will be provided to all organisations taking part through training, detailed information about each content area, expertise and implementation tools.
The Campaign will not attempt to attribute all improvement over the next two years solely to its efforts. It is fundamental that the improvements we will see, reflect all of the local and national initiatives. The 1000 Lives Campaign will bring together these current and proposed initiatives, add value to them and ensure all healthcare organisations are working closely together.
The concept of the Campaign originates from the Institutefor Healthcare Improvement in the USA, who will be advising the development and progress of the Welsh Campaign.
The Campaign is being taken forward as a collaborative involving the Welsh Assembly Government, the Wales Centre for Health, the National Leadership and Innovations Agency for Healthcare, the National Public Health Service and the National Patient Safety Agency.
Sign up to the Campaign has been voluntary and now that all 14 Trusts and 22 Local Health Boards across Wales are now on board, the aim of saving 1000 lives and reducing 50,000 episodes of harm has begun.
Further details
Visit the Campaign intranet atnww.1000LivesCampaign.wales.nhs.uk today, or email
A Campaign website at will be launched in April.
10.03.08