Critical incident reporting in the National Health Service breast units

The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) Breast Group has recently launched a Critical Incident reporting scheme. The aim is to collect data on adverse events specific to breast imaging in the hope of alerting units to potential hazards and incidents in a timely fashion (rather than reading about them in the newspapers!). Critical Incident reports can be submitted online http://www.rcrbreastgroup.com or in paper form using either the RCR Breast Group or local incident form. This is not intended to replace the national scheme for reporting being developed by the National Patient Safety Association. Events collected to date already reveal common themes such as mistakes surrounding biopsy specimen handling and patient identification.