In August 2022, NHS England published the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) outlining how NHS organisations should respond to patient safety incidents for the purpose of learning and improvement.
What is PSIRF?
The PSIRF framework will replace the current Serious Incident Response Framework by Autumn 2023, and represents a significant shift in the way the NHS responds to patient safety incidents, centring on compassion and involving those affected; system based approaches to learning and improvement; considered and proportionate responses; and supportive oversight.
The new framework is a major step towards improving safety management across the healthcare system in England and will greatly support the NHS to embed the key principles of a patient safety culture. It will ensure the NHS focuses on understanding how incidents happen, rather than apportioning blame on individuals; allowing for more effective learning and improvement, and ultimately making NHS care safer for patients.
Read more about PSIRF on the NHS England website.
Approach
Patient Safety Collaboratives (which are each hosted by their respective Health Innovation Network) have been commissioned to support the national adoption and scale up of PSIRF with fidelity to core principles, working in collaboration with partners in NHS England’s regional teams.
Our regional offer includes supporting learning and sharing as organisations go through the preparation period ahead of transition from their existing Serious Incident Framework to PSIRF. We are also working to support the emerging patient safety structures within the West of England’s three local systems as well as connecting to relevant regional and national networks.
Get in touch and resources
Sirona Care and Health have produced a case study on LFPSE (Learn from Patient Safety Events) and PSIRF Implementation. Sirona were early implementers for the LFPSE system; this case study outlines how utilising this system for reporting has supported the transition to PSIRF. Read the case study here.
Register for the PSIRF discussion forum where you can ask questions and share your experiences with people in organisations across England working to prepare for PSIRF.
For more information on any of our system safety work, please contact our patient safety team.
Please visit our events listings to find details of all patient safety events.
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