NEW: Surgical Care Safety Initiative of the Year

HSJ patient safety
NEW: Surgical Care Safety Initiative of the Year
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Surgery is one of the most complex and high-risk areas of healthcare delivery, requiring seamless coordination, precise clinical decision-making and robust systems to ensure safe, timely, and effective treatment. With pressures on waiting lists, pathway redesign, and innovation in perioperative care, organisations across the NHS are working to reduce unwarranted variation, prevent avoidable harm, and improve surgical outcomes.

This award recognises initiatives that have significantly enhanced the safety, efficiency, and experience of patients undergoing surgical procedures. Judges will be looking for innovations that demonstrate improved pre-operative assessment, reduced peri- or post-operative harm, improved reablement, optimised care pathways, or enhanced patient involvement—ultimately contributing to more reliable and safer care.

Eligibility

Entries are welcomed from across the NHS and the wider public health and social care system, including surgical teams, perioperative services, theatres, anaesthetics, recovery teams, or cross-pathway collaborations focused on elective or surgical care safety.

Ambition

  • Provide context for the initiative, including any challenges relating to waiting times, perioperative risk, surgical safety culture, or pathway inefficiencies.
  • Identify the need for improvement and explain the steps taken to design and implement the initiative.
  • Outline the goals set, the checks and balances introduced, and the measures chosen to predict and assess success.
  • Explain how the initiative was informed by established best practice, clinical evidence, national guidance, or local learning from incidents.

Outcome

  • Provide clear evidence of improvements in safety directly attributable to the initiative.
  • Include quantitative data where possible (e.g., reductions in surgical complications, cancellations, infections, returns to theatre, avoidable harm, or length of stay) and supplement this with qualitative insights such as patient and staff feedback.
  • Demonstrate how the work has contributed to the delivery of consistently safe, high-quality, and timely surgical care.
  • Highlight any additional benefits realised, such as smoother pathways, enhanced patient preparation, reduced anxiety, or improved reablement.

Spread

  • Provide evidence that the initiative has potential for replication or scaling within other departments, surgical specialties, or organisations.
  • Describe efforts to disseminate learning across the wider organisation including theatres, pre-operative services, surgical wards, recovery teams, or elective hubs.
  • Highlight any collaborative work with other departments (e.g diagnostics, primary care, or community teams) to embed or extend improvements.

Value

  • Demonstrate how the initiative has enhanced value for patients and staff, including improvements in experience, safety, theatre utilisation, efficiency, or workforce capability.
  • Where possible, outline financial or resource benefits, such as reduced delays, improved productivity, decreased variation, or more effective use of theatre time.
  • Include testimonials from patients, carers, or staff to illustrate the value and impact of the initiative.

Involvement

  • Show how patients and their families were involved in shaping elective or surgical pathways, including shared decision-making, consent processes, or pre-operative preparation.
  • Provide evidence of effective multidisciplinary working across surgery, anaesthetics, perioperative care, nursing, allied health professionals, managers, and patient safety partners.
  • Demonstrate how the initiative fostered a safety culture where staff feel empowered to raise concerns, participate in safety briefings, or contribute ideas for improvement.

To find out more

Partnership opportunities:  Sponsorship Sales Team
Awards entry enquiries: Delegate Sales Team
Judging and event management: Awards Support