Blog

February 13, 2026

When systems change but safety gets left behind: the real legacy risk

It can be easy to assume that a long-standing clinical system is safe simply because it has been in use for years. It’s comforting that that ‘old-faithful’ system is still around and is considered by many to be “proven in use”. But time alone is not necessarily evidence of safe operation. Proven in use only […]

January 31, 2025

Review of the DCB 0129/0160 Standards - Part 6

In this article, we continue our review of the DCB 0129 and DCB 0160 standards and consider further areas that may warrant attention as part of NHS England's technical consultation, which remains open until 11 September 2026. In this case, we’re going to tackle a thorny subject which would appear to create much confusion in […]

January 31, 2025

Review of the DCB 0129/0160 Standards - Part 5

In our continuing series where we critique the DCB 0129/0160 standards ahead of the forthcoming revision, we turn now to the subject of incident management. The DCB 0129 and 0160 standards both have requirements for addressing what is loosely referred to as ‘safety concerns’ and ‘safety incidents’. It’s here in particular that the requirements of […]

January 24, 2025

Review of the DCB 0129/0160 Standards - Part 4

In our previous blog articles, we talked about the forthcoming revision of the DCB 0129/0160 standards and a few nuances which, in our opinion, would benefit from a refresh. Let’s turn now to a couple of other issues, this time in relation to change management. DCB 0129 contains an important set of requirements with regards […]

January 24, 2025

Review of the DCB 0129/0160 Standards - Part 3

In our continuing analysis of the current DCB 0129 and DCB 0160 standards , we now turn our attention to governance. The current DCB 0129 and 0160 standards note a couple of requirements with regards what is referred to as ‘Top Management’. This is an important concept in risk management as it ties in an […]

January 19, 2025

Review of the DCB 0129/0160 Standards - Part 2

In our series of blog articles about potential revisions to the DCB 0129/0160 standards, we turn in this post to a couple of the definitions. Now let’s face it, how many of us actually read the definitions in standards? Personally, I always start out with a well-meaning plan to read them all but half-a-dozen in, […]

January 9, 2025

Review of the DCB 0129/0160 Standards - Part 1

The DCB 0129 and DCB 0160 standards were first published in 2009 and have been updated periodically, with the current versions published in 2018 to include medical devices. It’s not surprising therefore that a revision is long overdue, and NHS England has recently published a summary of the focus group findings from last year and […]

March 26, 2024

Eight things we've learnt in eight years of business

This blog post is a bit different to the content we normally post. This month is Safehand’s eighth birthday and this led me to think about the things that we’ve got right and wrong over the years. So, for what it’s worth, here’s eight things we’ve learned as clinical safety consultants in the last eight […]

January 8, 2024

How might NHS organisations measure Digital Safety Success?

The Digital Health Networks forum is a great place to hang out and learn more about Digital Clinical Safety. Recently a key contributor and NHS CSO asked the question ‘How do we know if we are performing well in regards to Clinical Safety?’ It’s a great question, and one that we thought deserved a blog […]

November 24, 2023

Complexity in safety

This week I’ve been critically reviewing a number of Safety Cases and Process documents which other organisations have written – an exercise we’re often involved with at Safehand. Interestingly, many of the documents I’ve reviewed this week had something in common – they’ve been really rather complicated. After much head-scratching, my mind wandered to the […]

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