Patient Safety Incident Response Framework

A new approach to responding to patient safety incidents

The Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) sets out the NHS’s approach to developing and maintaining effective systems and processes for responding to patient safety incidents for the purpose of learning and improving patient safety.

It lays out how NHS Trusts – such as Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) – should respond to patient safety incidents and how and when a patient safety investigation should be conducted. The aim is to develop a more open and transparent patient safety culture, with a greater focus on a system wide approach.

It replaces the Serious Incident Framework (2015) and represents a significant shift in the way the NHS responds to patient safety incidents and is a major step towards establishing a safety management system across the NHS. It is a key part of the NHS patient safety strategy, which supports the development and maintenance of an effective patient safety incident response system that integrates four key aims:

1. Compassionate engagement and involvement of those affected by patient safety incidents
2. Application of a range of system-based approached to learning from patient safety incidents
3. Considered and proportionate responses to patient safety incidents
4. Supportive oversight focussed on strengthening response system functioning and improvement

PSIRF is not just a new framework for recording incidents, it is a completely new way of looking at patient safety and empowers staff to speak up when things go wrong.

The Patient Safety Incident Response Policy can be found here:  Patient Safety Incident Response Policy V1.0.pdf [pdf] 340KB

The Patient Safety Incident Response Plan can be found here:  Patient Safety Incident Response Plan V1.0.pdf [pdf] 394KB

For more details please click on this link and watch the fillm below for a quick introduction.