Shared Insights: Impact of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) on preparing for inquests

Summary

The Patient Safety Incident Response Framework became mandatory for all health services contracted under the NHS Standard Contract, including NHS-funded care delivered by independent healthcare providers, in April 2024. It replaced the Serious Incident (SI) framework.

The change in approach to investigations under PSIRF has resulted in some practical challenges to the way in which information and organisational learning evidence is presented to the coroner for inquests.

Chaired by Amelia Newbold, Risk Management Lead, this Shared Insights session discussed how the PSIRF and coronial processes can work more effectively together to ensure that coroners receive the information they need for inquests while preserving PSIRF's core principle of fostering a learning culture within healthcare.

Bringing together perspectives from across the system, we explored some of the key challenges and, importantly, shared positive and practical examples of how a collaborative approach across both learning and coronial processes can ensure that relevant information is shared effectively.