Primary Care Contractors in NHS Wales are required to report incidents that have occurred within their organisations. The link on this form directs users to the Once for Wales system.

This form replaces the previous NRLS process that was discontinued in April 2022. This is an interim solution for 2022/23. Primary Care contractors will have full access to the Datix Cymru systems around Wales as part of the roll out of the Duties of Quality and Candour.

The Primary Care Wales National Incident Reporting form uses the power of the Once for Wales Concerns Management System (Datix Cymru) and operates using a cloud-based platform that is accessible throughout Wales.

This approach has been agreed by Welsh Government and data provided into the system will be shared with Health Boards in the relevant localities as part of their commissioning duties. The Health Boards teams will establish if any incident meets the threshold for national reporting and will advise the NHS Wales Delivery Unit through the standard reporting process in keeping with the national policy.

Patient Safety Incident Reporting

A patient safety incident is:

‘’any unintended or unexpected incident that could have or did lead to harm for one or more patients receiving NHS-funded healthcare’’.

A near miss, referred to by the NPSA as a prevented patient safety incident, is defined as:

“any unexpected or unintended incident that was prevented, resulting in no harm to one or more patients receiving NHS-funded healthcare. The incident could have been prevented by an action, an individual, timing, or by chance or luck.

Examples of patient safety incidents include:

• No harm – impact prevented (near miss) -  An incident resulting in No harm (impact prevented) has a degree of harm of ‘no harm’ but was an incident that was prevented from occurring or where the impact was prevented from occurring. For example, a patient is nearly given someone else’s medication; however, the nurse double checking the patient’s identification realises the mistake and does not give the patient the medication. This may be locally termed a ‘near miss’.
• No harm – impact not prevented - An incident can occur but still result in no harm. For example, a patient is prescribed one ‘painkiller’ (e.g. paracetamol) and given two instead. This has not been prevented in any way but has not caused any harm in this particular case. This would be a No harm (impact not prevented) incident.
• Low harm - Any unexpected or unintended incident that required extra observation or minor treatment and caused minimal harm to one or more persons receiving NHS-funded care.
• Moderate - Any unexpected or unintended incident that resulted in a moderate increase in treatment, possible surgical intervention, cancelling of treatment, or transfer to another area, and which caused significant but not permanent harm, to one or more persons receiving NHS-funded care.
• Severe - Any unexpected or unintended incident that appears to have resulted in permanent harm to one or more persons.
• Death - Any unexpected or unintended incident that directly resulted in the death of one or more persons.

Accessing this system

All primary care contractors should use the following link and ensure that the practice and commissioning Health Board are identified.

https://welshriskpool.private.prod-uk.datixcloudiq.co.uk/capture/?form_id=5&module=INC

Note: If you are reporting from a Community Pharmacy you should report directly into the Health Board using the below link:

Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Incident Reporting Wales - NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership

Help with Reporting an Incident

The Once for Wales Concerns Management Central Team are based in NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP) and host this website. If you have any queries regarding the reporting process or any technical issues, please contact:

OnceForWales.CMS@wales.nhs.uk – this inbox is monitored Monday to Friday 0900-1700.

Primary Care Wales National Incident Reporting User Guide (PDF, 283KB)

User Feedback

We would be pleased to receive any feedback on the reporting process to inform improvements. Please email the Once for Wales Concerns Management Central Team:

OnceForWales.CMS@wales.nhs.uk