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Preventable Deaths Tracker

A platform to learn lessons from PFDs to prevent future deaths

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Preventable Deaths Tracker

A platform to learn lessons from PFDs to prevent future deaths.

In England and Wales, regulations are in place to capture information on preventable deaths, called Prevention of Future Deaths reports (PFDs). Yet little is being done to use this information to reduce premature deaths.

We, therefore, created the Preventable Deaths Tracker to collate this information and make it accessible to all. Our Tracker also shares systematic analyses of this information, to warn against repeat hazards and highlight important lessons, to improve public safety, reduce avoidable harms, and prevent premature deaths.



What’s in the Database?

As of 22 June 2022, the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary had uploaded 4001 Prevention of Future Deaths reports (PFDs). The graph below illustrates the number of PFDs published over time. You can see the latest individual data here.

Number of Prevention of Future Deaths reports (PFDs) published on the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website from inception (July 2013) to 22nd June 2022.

What’s new?

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NEW PUBLICATION: Oxford medical student, Harrison France, published his research on 705 PFDs involving medicines in the journal Drug Safety! Take a read of the blog and publication.


NEW PUBLICATION: Oxford physics student, Qingyang Zhang, who was a 2022 Summer Intern, published her work on >4000 PFDs in the Medico-Legal Journal! Take a read of the blog and publication.


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Prevention of Future Deaths reports.

On average, 1% of inquests are written as PFD reports every year (2014-2021), the lowest ratio in the whole pipeline.

An inquest is opened by a coroner, and is a fact-finding investigation used to determine when, where and how a person died. On average, inquests are opened on 53.8% of postmortems conducted every year (2014-2021).

A caveat to the pipeline is that inquests can be opened without a postmortem examination. From 2014 to 2021, 18.5% of inquests are opened without postmortems. 

Inquests can be concluded (a cause of death is determined), adjourned (postponed), or left open (no conclusion is reached regarding the cause of death).

Postmortem examinations is an examination of the body to determine the cause of death.

On average, postmortem is conducted on 38.8% of all reported deaths every year (2014-2021).

In 2021, 33% of all deaths were reported to coroners.