Updated Incident Reporting Approved Particulars

New Incident Reporting Approved Particulars have been published on the NHS England website (as of 23 July 2024). This document replaces the previous Approved Particulars which have been in place since 2012. Contractors should familiarise themselves with the content of this new document to ensure they understand what is required should an incident occur, including being familiar with what is considered an incident.

Broadly, the updated Incident Reporting Approved Particulars confirm existing expectations and practice, including that:

• Pharmacies must have a patient safety incident log for all incidents, which captures the information set out in the Approved Particulars.
• Pharmacies must report to the Learn from Patient Safety Events Service (LFPSE) relevant incidents (but not near misses) and when reporting use the defined levels of physical and psychological harm grades in LFPSE.
• Pharmacies must notify a referring external organisation of the incident with appropriate details, where the incident is related to a referral from that organisation,
• Only relevant staff involved in providing NHS services should be involved in the analyses of patient safety incidents.
• The pharmacy owner must participate in any reasonable activities associated with patient safety incidents including engaging in review and root cause analysis where requested to do so by the relevant service commissioner, or other referring organisation where the incident is related to a referral from them.
• Pharmacies may report incidents anonymously if, for example, the error could constitute a criminal offence, or as part of staff ‘whistleblowing’ in relation to unsafe dispensing practices.

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