Identifying primary care patient safety research priorities in the UK: a James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership

OBJECTIVES To identify the top 10 unanswered research questions for primary care patient safety research. DESIGN A modified nominal group technique. SETTING UK. PARTICIPANTS Anyone with experience of primary care including: patients, carers and healthcare professionals. 341 patients and 86 healthcare professionals submitted questions. MAIN OUTCOMES A top 10, and top 30, future research questions for primary care patient safety. RESULTS 443 research questions were submitted by 341 patients and 86 healthcare professionals, through a national survey. After checking for relevance and rephrasing, a total of 173 questions were collated into themes. The themes were largely focused on communication, team and system working, interfaces across primary and secondary care, medication, self-management support and technology. The questions were then prioritised through a national survey, the top 30 questions were taken forward to the final prioritisation workshop. The top 10 research questions focused on the most vulnerable in society, holistic whole-person care, safer communication and coordination between care providers, work intensity, continuity of care, suicide risk, complex care at home and confidentiality. CONCLUSIONS This study was the first national prioritisation exercise to identify patient and healthcare professional priorities for primary care patient safety research. The research priorities identified a range of important gaps in the existing evidence to inform everyday practice to address primary care patient safety.