Patient Safety
The Patient Safety Team enables the delivery of safe, quality patient care. The team creates safe systems to:
- Reduce the potential for unintended and avoidable harm
- Minimise risk to patients whilst they are receiving care
- Review with an open and transparent approach when things have not gone as planned, involving service users and their families where possible, and identify learning
- Build on good practice so that patients have the best possible experience of care
- Support staff to minimise patient safety incidents and drive improvements in safety and quality.
The team provides clinical and non–clinical patient safety expertise across the organisation. The team sets policy direction and works with partner organisations like other NHS bodies, CQC and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to improve patient safety.
The team are committed to supporting a restorative just and learning culture across the organisation. This means that when something doesn’t go as planned, staff are supported to have open discussions without fear of blame, where the focus is on “what was responsible, not who is responsible”. By understanding what has happened, we can learn from incidents and improve the quality of our services.
To support the NHS to further improve patient safety, all NHS Trusts and providers are preparing for the introduction of a new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF).
PSIRF - What it means for our patients:
From 9th October 2023, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital will begin to respond to patient safety incidents according to PSIRF.
We recognise and acknowledge the significant impact patient safety incidents can have on patients, service users, their families, and carers.
We will use a variety of ways to identify learning and make improvements following an incident where a patient or service user was or could have been harmed.
This is a major step towards establishing a safety management system across the whole of the NHS.
Aims of PSIRF
The PSIRF supports the development and maintenance of an effective patient safety incident response system that brings together four aims:
- Compassionate engagement and involvement of those affected by patient safety incidents
- The application of a range of system-based approaches to our learning from patient safety incidents
- Considered and proportionate responses to patient safety incidents
- Supportive oversight which focusses on strengthening responses and system improvements.
At Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, our Patient Safety and Risk Management team are leading the PSIRF implementation to make sure that our work links with the wider health and care system.
We have written a PSIRF plan and policy, which will be available to view here soon.
Further information
NHS England have also developed an animation which explains what the PSIRF is how it will improve the way we undertake our investigations.
If you have any queries or would like more information, please email PSIRF@lhch.nhs.uk or visit NHS England's PSIRF website.