World Patient Safety Day 2023 is dedicated to the theme “Engaging patients for patient safety” and the slogan “Elevate the voice of patients!”.
Safe healthcare is a fundamental right of all patients, everywhere, every time. And yet, patient harm due to unsafe care is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide, with millions of patients harmed every year.
Patient experience is fundamental to how we measure the quality of care across our services, and our staff are committed to maintaining a caring, safe and excellent environment for the people we serve not just today, but every day.
What are we doing to improve patient safety?
We are currently working in partnership with NHS England and Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) to introduce a new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF), which will go live across the organisation later this year.
Developed nationally to respond more effectively to patient safety incidents, PSIRF represents a significant shift in the way the NHS responds to patient safety incidents. It integrates four key aims:
- Compassionate engagement and involvement of those affected by patient safety incidents
- Application of a range of system-based approaches to learning from patient safety incidents
- Considered and proportionate responses to patient safety incidents
- Supportive oversight focussed on strengthening the response system function
Work is well underway to move across to our new PSIRF. We have reviewed the type of reported incidents for the organisation over the last two years. This has also been reviewed in conjunction with patient and staff feedback, complaints, and Freedom to Speak Up reports to identify our target areas.
Our next steps involve training staff to feel confident and competent, and move towards rapid, proportionate responses that will enable teams to under the cause of incidents more efficiently. PSIRF requires incidents to be assessed and investigated in line with the learning opportunities available.
PSIRF:
- allows us to use resources wisely and establish a culture of learning around patient safety and incidents
- allows teams to implement a sustainable and proportionate response.
- ensures that all individuals involved in a patient safety incident are supported, including the patient, family, careers, and staff
If you’d like to read more about PSIRF at CityCare, visit our website here.
For more on World Patient Safety Day, visit the website here.
Date published: 11 September 2023
