NHS Improvement have published a draft patient safety strategy for England. Consultation on this has just finished and the feedback is being analysed before finalising the strategy. AvMA broadly welcomed the draft strategy, but it was light on detail and contained relatively little new. It is nevertheless a renewed statement of intent.
Of particular interest was a brief mention of the intention of recruiting patients / members of the public as “patient safety advocates”. This could be a very welcome return to fully recognising the vital role patients and families can play in patient safety – something that has been absent since the abolition of the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA). However, there was very little detail and there did not appear to have been any engagement with patients or patients organisations prior to publishing the draft strategy.
AvMA are keen that lessons are learnt from past work on this and to build on what has worked best. AvMA managed the Patients for Patient Safety and ‘Patient Safety champions’ projects in partnership with the NPSA and is affiliated to the World Health Organisation patients for patient safety initiative. AvMA’s response asks for acknowledgement that one of the most important elements of patient/family involvement is their involvement in patient safety investigations.
Several high profile reports have found that patients/families are not being consistently involved in investigations and sometimes not at all. The Learning from Deaths programme has underlined the need for independent specialist advice and support for people. The opportunity to make progress on funding such advice and support must not be passed by.
Other suggestions AvMA have made include a more joined up approach including robust regulation of patient safety requirements and action on establishing a just culture taskforce that had been promised. That work must re-enforce that a just culture includes treating patients/families honestly and fairly as well as staff.