Immediate Action and Internal Reporting

When a patient safety issue occurs, the immediate priority is to keep the patient safe. Reporting is essential, but it must not delay urgent care, emergency response, stopping unsafe treatment, isolating contaminated instruments, protecting privacy, or escalating to a clinician.

After urgent safety actions are taken, follow the internal reporting route. This could be the dentist, senior dental nurse, practice manager, clinical lead, safeguarding lead, infection prevention lead, radiation protection supervisor, data protection lead, an incident form, the accident book or an electronic reporting system. Which route to use depends on the issue.

Immediate steps

• Stop or pause unsafe activity if needed.
• Call for clinical help, emergency help or 999 if required.
• Protect the patient from further harm.
• Preserve relevant evidence such as equipment, packaging or records.
• Tell the appropriate lead promptly.
• Complete the local report as soon as practicable.

Do not assume a verbal report is sufficient. A spoken warning may resolve the immediate risk, but a written or electronic report allows the practice to review patterns, allocate actions and demonstrate learning.

Who should own the report?

Make safe first, then report. A good report should not be delayed until the end of the week if a patient, colleague or system remains unsafe.