Safety recommendation
HSIB recommends that the General Medical Council engages with relevant stakeholders to amend the procedure for taking blood cultures in its ‘Practical skills and procedures’ guidance, making clear that the procedure relates to taking blood from a peripheral site, so mitigating the risks to patient safety associated with central lines.
Response:
We sent a letter (15 May 2023) to the deans of all UK medical schools, co-signed by the Medical Schools Council and the UK Foundation Programme Office, to explain that this amendment is needed to mitigate risks to patients, and we will therefore implement this recommendation as soon as is practically possible. To support this, we requested all medical schools respond to a set of questions that would enable us to determine an appropriate amendment and timelines for the change to be implemented locally by medical schools.
We understand that local implementation by medical schools will involve communicating the amendment to educators and learners, as well as updating learning materials and documentation.
This letter also outlined our plans to use the quality assurance self-assessment questionnaires medical schools complete annually to confirm that the amendment has been implemented locally.
In response to this letter, we have received strong support for making an amendment to the list and for this to have been implemented locally by medical schools in time for the 2023-2024 academic year.
A second letter will be sent to all UK medical schools confirming the specific amendment that will be made and requesting this is locally implemented in time for the new academic year.
We will then publish an updated version of the Outcomes for graduates - Practical skills and procedures (2019) on our website and communicate this through relevant channels.
Actions planned to deliver safety recommendation:
- GMC to write to all UK medical schools confirming the amendment it will make to the practical skills and procedures list and its expectations for when medical schools should implement this locally, by July 2023.
- GMC to publish updated Outcomes for graduates – Practical skills and procedures on its website and communicate the change through relevant channels, by August 2023.
- GMC to confirm the amendment has been implemented locally by all medical schools through the annual self-assessment questionnaires all medical schools complete, by October 2023 - December 2024.
Response received on 23 June 2023.