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.