RCP: Change in patient monitoring could save lives

27 July 2012 Last updated at 05:55 ET Help

Thousands of lives could be saved if hospitals in the UK all used the same bedside chart for monitoring patients, according to the Royal College of Physicians.

There are currently more than 100 different types of chart used in the NHS to check patients' vital signs.

The RCP claims using a single standard form would be one of the most significant developments in health care in the next decade.

Professor Bryan Williams said currently there are around 12,000 avoidable deaths in the NHS every year.

The BBC's health correspondent Jane Dreaper reports.

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