Holding regular safety briefings and debriefings has improved safety and the patient experience at one trust. The approach was piloted in an elective orthopaedic inpatient setting and includes obtaining real time patient feedback. The comments are themed, which enables staff to introduce service changes to rectify any problems. Staff using the tools have adopted the process as part of their working schedule. The authors discuss the advantages of using such an approach, which they believe can be introduced in any inpatient, outpatient and day-case setting to promote a safety culture in teams and obtain patient feedback that can be acted on promptly.

The Sign up to Safety (SutS) programme was launched in June 2014 by health secretary Jeremy Hunt. It focuses on listening to patients, carers and staff, learning from what they say when things go wrong, and then taking action to improve patient safety. The programme aims to make the NHS the safest healthcare system in the world by creating a culture devoted to continuous learning and improvement (NHS England 2014). Musgrove Park Hospital, part of Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, was one of 12 NHS organisations that signed up to the SutS programme, making public its commitment to the national pledges to be 'open and transparent' and to develop a safety improvement plan. This paper describes the development of the strategy.