Below are some examples of the impact Scan4Safety is having in NHS trusts. You can also read the 2020 A scan of the benefits: the Scan4Safety evidence report which highlights the results achieved by the six demonstrator sites over the course of the original two-year Scan4Safety programme.
Patient safety improvements
- By introducing scanning in pharmacy, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust reduced prevented-error rates by 76 per cent, including elimination of all errors caused by wrong patient, wrong drug, wrong dose and wrong form.
- Derby Teaching Hospitals prevented potential harm by identifying seven expired products in theatres in a single day through barcode scanning.
- At Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, staff deal with around 500 product recalls a year. Since the introduction of Scan4Safety, the average time taken to recall a product has fallen from 8.33 days to less than 35 minutes.
- Automated alerts when barcodes are scanned at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust provide clinicians with accurate real-time decision support information such as expiry dates and product suitability.
- Liverpool University Hospitals internal dispensing error rate decreased by 90% after implementing closed-loop medicine supply.
Financial savings and return on investment
- The six Scan4Safety demonstrator sites achieved recurrent inventory savings of nearly £5 million during the two-year programme (2016–2018), with a further £9 million in non-recurrent inventory reductions.
- Average estimated financial benefit of £2.7 million per trust over five years through NHS Supply Chain’s IMS programme
- At Leeds Teaching Hospitals better stock management led to a £2 million reduction on the balance sheet; surgical tray rationalisation saved £83,548 in just six months.
- Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust achieved cumulative savings of £1.3 million by February 2017; switching to pre-sterilised screws saved £36 per use on sterilisation costs
- University Hospitals of Derby and Burton — cumulative benefits of £3,194,346 by December 2018
- University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust realised £209,000 of net savings in the first year of the programme alone.
- North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust saved £1,081,280 from its balance sheet by December 2018, and estimated Scan4Safety had released 22,000 hours of clinical time — including through reductions in adverse drug effects and incident reporting.
The scale of preventable harm and waste across the NHS demonstrates the cost of not acting:
The financial case for change
- An estimated 237 million medication errors occur annually in the NHS, contributing to over 36,000 additional bed days of inpatient care at a cost of approximately £17.8 million
- Surgical claims, including wrong-site surgery and faulty implants, cost the NHS over £195 million in 2021/22
- In 2017/18, 35,931 units of red blood cells were wasted at an estimated cost of £4.6 million
- Inefficient inventory management contributes to an estimated £1 billion in excess shelf stock across the NHS
Operational efficiency
- At Leeds Teaching Hospitals, scanning released the equivalent of 16,000 hours of clinical time annually back to patient care.
- North Tees and Hartlepool reduced stock count time from two days to just 30 minutes, freeing staff for direct patient care.
- At Derby Teaching Hospitals electronic observations with barcode scanning reduced observation time by nearly two minutes per patient, saving the equivalent of 20 nurses’ time per day across the trust.
- North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust saved an average of 15 minutes per case for clinical support workers and released more than 4,000 hours back to patient care.
- In cardiac catheterisation labs at Derby Teaching Hospitals one and a half band 7 nurses were entirely freed from stock-control work and released to patient care
- At North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust medical devices can be tracked efficiently and accurately to patient level, providing full compliance with Medical Device Outcomes Registry (MDOR) standards
What trust leaders are saying
“Scan4Safety is a pioneering initiative to bring 21st century data standards to our everyday work in the NHS. I’m proud that at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, we were one of the original demonstrator sites and it has shown improvements in how we track patients and equipment around our seven hospitals, and, crucially, frees up staff time so they can spend more time focusing on patient care.”
Julian Hartley, Chief Executive, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
“It’s changing the experience for all of our users… our patients, by making sure we have the right product in the right place at the right time………The investment in time at the start is dwarfed by the size of the benefits and the efficiencies that it brings after you have implemented.”
Tom Burton, Director of Finance, The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust
Every scan makes a difference
Every scan is a safety check that protects patients and prevents errors. Every scan gives staff more time to focus on patient care rather than administrative tasks. Every scan gives the NHS clearer insight into how care is delivered and where improvements can be made.
From a patient perspective, those in demonstrator trusts report greater confidence in their care when they learn that products used in their treatment can be traced directly to them, supporting safer outcomes and accountability.
Scan4Safety is not about technology for its own sake. It’s about making care safer, faster, and more reliable for every patient.