Spire Healthcare: How has implementing PSIRF strengthened culture – and what can others learn? (6 February 2025)

Summary

Spire Healthcare’s cultural journey through 2024 highlights how any healthcare organisation can leverage frameworks like PSIRF, coupled with supportive initiatives like Quality Improvement and Freedom to Speak Up, to drive meaningful change and create environments where safety, trust, compassion and collaboration thrive.

Content

In 2024, Spire Healthcare took a bold step towards enhancing patient safety by implementing the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) across its network of hospitals. This was a legal obligation for NHS patients in England, but Spire chose to implement for every patient – private and NHS – in England, Scotland and Wales. Developed by NHS England, PSIRF redefines how healthcare organisations approach patient safety incidents, shifting the focus from blame to system-wide learning and improvement. For Spire, this was not just a compliance exercise – it represented a cornerstone of cultural transformation, fostering openness, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

This work culminated in Spire being named as a finalist at the 2024 HSJ Patient Safety Awards, in the ‘Developing a Positive Safety Culture’ category. This recognised Spire’s dedication to embedding safety principles into our DNA.

Central to culture were two key enablers alongside PSIRF: a robust Quality Improvement (QI) strategy and the organisation’s commitment to the Freedom to Speak Up (FTSU) initiative, both of which were deeply integrated with PSIRF to support a positive cultural shift.