17th December 2025
The Harmed Patient Pathway (HPP) provides a practical, values-driven framework that prioritises healing, prevents compounded harm, and supports just and trusting relationships between patients, families, and healthcare providers. We believe it offers a timely opportunity for the NHS to strengthen after-harm practice and align with the restorative ambitions of a just culture.
This milestone follows an extensive consultation carried out in late 2024, which received more than 150 responses from harmed patients, families, healthcare professionals, and those involved in patient safety. We are immensely grateful to everyone who provided constructive and supportive comments and advice, all of which has been carefully considered in developing the final framework.
Why the Pathway matters
The need for clearer, more compassionate and coherent responses to harmed patients has been underlined by Dr Penny Dash’s 2025 review of the patient-safety landscape. Her review heard “considerable concern from patients or user groups about the complaints process and the confused landscape. It is particularly challenging for those who have, or believe they have, been harmed or suffered poor outcomes as a result of care.”
Dr Dash’s findings reinforce the importance of a dedicated, structured pathway that helps organisations respond consistently and humanely when harm occurs.
What the Pathway offers
The Harmed Patient Pathway provides a practical, values-driven framework that prioritises healing, prevents compounded harm, and supports just and trusting relationships between patients, families and healthcare providers. We believe it offers a timely opportunity for the NHS to strengthen after-harm practice and align with the restorative ambitions of a just culture.
Next steps: Making the Pathway a reality
The publication of the HPP commitments by the core working group is just the beginning. Now we need to persuade the NHS to adopt the Pathway.
We recognise that adopting the Pathway properly will take time, effort, and resources, all of which are in short supply in the current NHS. However, as the evidence shows, the NHS acknowledges there is a problem with how harmed patients are supported. Solutions cannot be ignored for much longer.
We will continue to update our supporters on progress as adoption discussions develop across the UK and Ireland.