In this thought paper, Professor Aneez Esmail discusses the measurement and monitoring of safety from the perspective of primary care.

He considers the differences between primary care and other settings and explains that a variety of factors mean that assessing harm and safety in primary care remains a challenge. He identifies a number of existing tools that can be used to measure and monitor safety in primary care and considers what research will be needed in order to assess if care in a primary care organisation is safe.