What is the challenge your project is going to address and how does it connect to the theme of 'How can we improve across system boundaries?​

Imagine that you or someone close to you has been affected by a patient safety incident. You want to be heard and contribute to the prevention of this happening in the future but the language, policies, and processes prevent you from doing so.

The importance of including the voice of patients and those affected by patient safety incidences has long been understood however until the advent of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) and its advocacy for compassionate engagement and involvement and supporting documentation (B1465-2.-Engaging-and-involving…-v1-FINAL.pdf (england.nhs.uk) there had been no specific national framework or guidance to do so.

What does your project aim to achieve?

Our project aims to offer consistency to PSPs across multiple system boundaries including patient and professional, primary and secondary care, and health and social care. New developments in patient safety recognise that the inclusion of the patient voice substantially improves our understanding of what happened and the ability to learn and improve practice moving forward. The introduction of Patient Safety Partners is a new and novel concept, with a varied approach being adopted by different providers. PSIRF advocates the engagement of Patient Safety Partners (PSPs) to work alongside provider organisations to represent their patient population and advocate on their behalf.

How will the project be delivered?

We will do this by:

1)      Bringing PSPs together initially as a small integrated group (Spring 2024) to gauge current experiences, skills, and areas most in need of support.

2)      Extend the learning throughout the region by undertaking a region-wide event (Autumn 2024) specifically targeting support for PSPs.

3)      Weave a sustainable regional PSP network designed to continue to provide guidance and support for this role from infancy to maturity.

4)      Evaluate the network through PSP participation and regular discussion on need.

How is your project going to share learning?

Learning will be shared locally, regionally and nationally through our established networks of National Patient Safety Collaboratives and the National PSIRF implementation Group, regionally through the SE Regionally PSIRF Steering Group and locally through our close working relationships with Patient Safety Leads in the ICSs

We will use blogs,case studies , webinars , submissions to newsletters and social media to help us share learning.