National Training Survey: helping to ensure patient safety

In this year’s National Training Survey we asked trainees to tell us if they had any concerns about patient safety in their training environment.

We did this because we want trainees to feel empowered to report concerns, and to recognise the part they can play in helping to deliver safe and effective care for patients.

The results showed that around 5% of trainees had a concern that they wanted to raise. We were encouraged that so many trainees felt able to report their concerns.

It was also encouraging to see that concerns are generally comparable throughout the UK, with no significant difference in reporting across the four nations.

Most of the concerns could be grouped into two main areas: inadequate staffing out of hours and more general service delivery issues.

Following the results of the survey, deaneries have investigated concerns within their area and have reported that they were already aware of the majority of issues raised. They have told us what action they are taking to address the issues, and we will monitor their resolution by continuing to work closely with the deaneries in the coming months.

We have compiled the results into a short summary:

• National training survey: response to concerns raised by trainees (pdf).

You can find out more about the survey and about raising concerns at:

• National Training Survey
• How we respond to concerns.