How the hub is being used to improve patient safety

Here are just some of the ways Patient Safety Learning and our members are using the hub to improve patient safety:

Sharing ideas to improve patient safety

Members are sharing new initiatives and good practice they have implemented on the hub. Examples include:

• Yellow kits - an innovation to reduce the risk of falls in Accident and Emergency departments.
• Looking beyond barriers to Family Integrated Care in the NICU to create a culture for change.
• LeDeR, a service improvement programme across Primary Care in Salford for people with a learning disability and autistic people.

Establishing networks of shared interest

Healthcare professionals working on different aspects of patient safety can find themselves working in isolation, facing barriers to connecting with people doing similar roles in other organisations. the hub is being used as a space to make connections and collaborate to improve the way patient safety policy is implemented across the UK.

Currently the hub supports five informal voluntary networks:

• Patient Safety Management Network – this is an innovative network for patient safety managers and everyone working in patient safety. In just over two years this has grown to now over 1300 members from more than 650 different organisations. 
• National NatSSIPs Network – a group of healthcare professionals aiming to reduce the number of patient safety incidents related to invasive procedures. In just over a year this has grown to now have over 750 members.
• Patient Safety Education Network – a peer network for those in patient safety education and training roles now over 170 members.
• Patient Safety Partners Network – a group for Patient Safety Partners, paid and voluntary roles within NHS organisations aimed at improving patient safety, over 70 members. 
• Patient Safety Paediatric Leaders Network – an invited network for anyone who is a strategic-level decision maker in a specialist children’s hospital or unit with a leadership responsibility for patient safety and/or quality in the UK.

You can join by signing up to the hub today. When putting in your details, please tick the relevant Network in the ‘Join a private group’ section. If you are already a member of the hub, please email support@PSLhub.org. 

Campaigning for safer care

the hub is helping its members to highlight patient safety issues and promote safer care. 

• Working with the Campaign Against Painful Hysteroscopy patient group, we began a Community discussion on the hub in February 2020 about ‘Painful hysteroscopy’. We have seen a significant amount of interest in this issue, with many patients sharing their experiences, and have used these to raise awareness of the problem in various forums, including most recently a conference hosted by the Association of Anaesthetists.
• Sling the Mesh, a campaign group for women injured by pelvic mesh surgery, is using the hub to raise patient safety issues. Sling the Mesh founder Kath Sansom has written a number of blogs about how the health service is failing to take women’s concerns seriously, offer effective treatment and redress for injured patients, or learn from the regulatory mistakes made with mesh devices.
• We have been highlighting the lack of support for thousands of patients with Long Covid. People living with Long Covid are also using the hub as a forum to share their stories and experiences.

Highlighting frontline staff concerns

Frontline healthcare professionals are currently facing huge pressures in their work, which is compromising both staff and patient safety. the hub is providing a forum for healthcare professionals to share their concerns about the issues they face every day.

• Staff fatigue in healthcare is a growing concern as demand for services grows and more and more professionals leave the workforce. Working with the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), we have published a number of blogs and interviews to help generate conversation about the issue of fatigue and how it can be tackled.
• We have been highlighting the experiences of people facing the reality of lack of capacity in emergency care, including an account from an emergency medical technician (EMT) about getting stuck in ambulance queues.
• The Surviving in Scrubs campaign, which gives a voice to women in healthcare to raise awareness and end sexism, sexual harassment and sexual assault in healthcare published a blog on the hub about their work. The campaign is collecting anonymous testimonies from healthcare professionals who have experienced sexism, misogyny, sexual harassment, sexual assault or rape whilst in work.

Highlighting the people making patient safety happen

In February 2022, we launched our Patient Safety Spotlight interview series, where we ask people working for patient safety about their role and what motivates them. Since then, we have spoken to over 30 healthcare professionals, patient campaigners, researchers and healthcare leaders who have shared their perspectives on the big patient safety challenges and how they are helping to tackle them.