A significant new report from Imperial College London's second Global State of Patient Safety Report has revealed that Britain is severely lagging in patient safety, ranking 21st out of 38 countries. This places the UK behind nations such as Norway, Switzerland, Spain, and Estonia, with Norway topping the table, followed by the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, and Ireland. France, Greece, and the US were ranked even lower than the UK, at 29th, 31st, and 34th respectively.

The report's researchers compared performance across critical measures including deaths from treatable causes like sepsis and blood clots, as well as maternal deaths and infant mortalities linked to premature birth complications, brain damage during delivery, and neonatal infections. Alarmingly, the report estimates that approximately 22,789 lives could be saved annually in the UK if its patient safety standards matched those of Switzerland, the best-performing country for preventable deaths. This translates to about 60 lives lost every single day due to preventable failures.

Long waiting times for complex treatments are a significant contributor to the UK's poor standing. The report highlighted that Britain experiences higher-than-average delays compared to other nations, ranking last out of 11 countries for heart bypass operation waiting times and also for rates of deep vein thrombosis following hip or knee replacement surgeries. The British Heart Foundation reported that 397,478 people were awaiting 'routine' cardiac care in England by September 2025, underscoring that prolonged waits increase the risk of disability from heart failure or premature death.

Failings in women's health also came under scrutiny, with the UK ranking ninth out of 10 countries for hysterectomy waiting times. Maternity care similarly performed poorly when compared internationally. Preterm birth is the leading cause of neonatal mortality in the UK, and since 2003, Britain has consistently performed worse than the OECD average on this measure. Although the neonatal death rate has fallen since 2000, it has plateaued since 2017, while the average death rate among other countries has continued to decline. If the UK had matched Japan's neonatal mortality rate in 2023, there could have been 1,123 fewer neonatal deaths.

The UK also ranked last out of 10 countries for patients contracting sepsis after abdominal or pelvic surgery. Wider data from an accompanying tool, utilizing figures from 205 countries, ranked the UK 141st for deaths due to adverse events following medical procedures. These adverse events, which include deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and sepsis, are unintended injuries or complications resulting from healthcare management. While OECD rates for four out of five surgical complication indicators have fallen since 2009, the UK recorded the highest complication rates for three of these indicators where data was available, with an upward trend for pulmonary embolism following hip and knee replacement during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

James Titcombe, chief executive of Patient Safety Watch and one of the report's authors, emphasized the profound human cost: 'Behind every statistic in this report is a person who should still be alive and a family whose lives have been permanently changed.' He stressed that closing this patient safety gap must become an 'urgent national priority.' Lord Darzi, director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London, stated that the report pinpoints areas for rapid progress, including reducing surgical complications, avoidable deaths, and systematic learning from leading countries, advocating for 'better data, stronger governance and patients as partners' as foundations for safer care.

In response, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson acknowledged the challenges inherited and outlined governmental actions to strengthen patient safety. These include overhauling the Care Quality Commission, rolling out Martha's Rule and Jess's Rule for fresh clinical reviews, introducing hospital league tables, implementing new maternity safety measures, and establishing a task force to restore confidence in NHS care. The government expressed its determination to make the NHS the 'safest in the world.'