Sentinel events are the most serious adverse patient safety events in our healthcare system. And it’s important that we all learn from them.

That’s why we release this report every year – to share what we have learnt and to help health services prevent similar events.

Even when our healthcare system faces extraordinary challenges, 2020–21 demonstrated continued commitment by our health services to recognise, review and respond to adverse patient safety events.

This year, we focused on three sentinel event themes:

• mental health
• residential aged care
• the impact of COVID-19 in healthcare settings.

Read more:

Supporting patient safety: Learning from sentinel events – Annual report 2020–21 (.pdf)