Championing the patient voice: a recent discussion with the Patient Safety Commissioner at the Patient Safety Partners Network

Summary

This blog provides an overview of a Patient Safety Partners Network meeting on the 4 February 2024. At this meeting, members of the Network were joined by Professor Henrietta Hughes, Patient Safety Commissioner for England.

The Network includes Patient Safety Partners, in both paid and voluntary roles within NHS organisations, whose role is to improve patient safety. Patient Safety Learning provides a monthly drop-in session, sometimes with guests, to talk through topical and relevant issues. This facilitates information sharing, peer support and safe space for discussion.

Content

The role of Patient Safety Commissioner for England was created by the UK Government after a recommendation from the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, chaired by Baroness Julia Cumberlege.

This Review examined the response of the healthcare system in England to the harmful side effects of three medical interventions: hormone pregnancy tests, sodium valproate and pelvic mesh implants. It described the healthcare system as being “disjointed, siloed, unresponsive and defensive” and found that it did not “adequately recognise that patients are its raison d’etre”.

The Patient Safety Commissioner acts as a champion for patients, leading a drive to improve the safety of medicines and medical devices.

Role and work of the Patient Safety Commissioner

Opening the meeting, the Patient Safety Commissioner, Professor Henrietta Hughes, outlined the background to her post, reflecting that since her appointment in 2022:

• She has worked with two governments, a wide variety of different NHS organisations and national healthcare bodies such as the Care Quality Commission, NHS England and the Health Services Safety Investigations Body.
• There has been significant changes made to improve information provided to women of childbearing potential taking teratogenic medications (which carry risks if taken during pregnancy).
• The roll-out of Martha’s Rule has proceeded at pace across 143 pilot sites in the NHS.

Henrietta spoke about the importance of improving how patients are listened to by the healthcare system and the need to place the patient voice at the heart of decision making. Working towards this, she noted that her strategy includes a focus on advocate for partnerships which embed patient safety and patient voice through the healthcare system. Her strategy identifies the roll out of Patient Safety Partners across England as a key element of this.

She also spoke about her launch of seven Patient Safety Principles, published last year following a public consultation.

She talked about her optimism of seeing these put into use to support planning and collaborative working with patients as partners throughout the healthcare system. She welcomed the opportunity to meet Patient Safety Partners and praised the Network and the work it does to engage, support and inform.

Network discussion

Subsequently the meeting opened out into a question and answer session which touched on the following areas.

Support and impact

There was a discussion about what more can be done to maximise the impact of Patient Safety Partners and improve the level of support they receive from the NHS. Henrietta spoke about the parallels between this and the time it took to embed Freedom to Speak Up Guardian roles in the health service. She was previously National Guardian. She also reflected positively on how new NHS planning guidance could support this, with its emphasis on patient experience.

Role clarity

There was a conversation about how the role of Patient Safety Partners in organisations can be strengthened. It was noted that existing guidance does not specify in significant detail how these roles should work, which can lead to a lack of clarity for Patient Safety Partners. Henrietta reflected on the need to ensure that what is said about ambitions for patient involvement and patient voice at a Board level is also reflected in the practical actions that trusts undertake.

Training

Henrietta shared her views on how Patient Safety Partners could potentially utilise the Network both to support and learn from each other. She noted the value of being able to understand what training is being provided at different trusts, which Patient Safety Partners could then use to return with new thoughts and ideas to their own organisations. She also pointed to her Patient Safety Principles as a framework for establishing where there may be gaps in what their organisations currently do.

Retaining knowledge

There was a discussion about how Patient Safety Partners can build on and share their experience once their terms come to an end. This included considering how they might use this in other roles in the NHS, such as governors and non-executive director roles, and the importance of ensuring knowledge and experience is shared with new incoming Patient Safety Partners.

Implementation of Martha’s Rule

Henrietta highlighted the progress made to date in implementing Martha’s Rule in the NHS. She noted that while it is currently early days, initial data showed that it was already supporting clinical reviews leading to changes in care and safety improvements. She emphasised that this showed the wider value of including patients as part of the healthcare team.

Concluding thoughts

Hopes and aspirations for the Government’s forthcoming Ten Year Health Plan was also a topic of discussion. Henrietta reflected on the need for the voice of patients to be a core part of this. She is continuously advocating for this in her engagement with Ministers and the leaders of national organisations and regulators.

Closing the session, she said that she thought the Patient Safety Partner Network was fantastic and she was pleased that so many people regularly joined these meetings to share valuable insights and experiences.

How to join the Patient Safety Partners Network

The Patient Safety Partners Network meets monthly in a virtual capacity and now includes more than 160 Patient Safety Partners. These meetings provide a supportive and safe space for Patient Safety Partners to:

• discuss barriers and opportunities
• share successes
• discuss how they can use their collective voice to make a difference for patient safety.

Only Patient Safety Partners working within NHS organisations in England can join, although experts are often invited to present or discuss specific topics.

If you are a Patient Safety Partner, you can find out more about the Patient Safety Partner Network, and how to join here.

If you would like to attend a Patient Safety Partners Network meeting as a guest speaker, please contact us at [email protected].

Related reading

Patient Safety Partners: a toolkit of resources – this webpage brings together a range of different resources designed to share insights and information about the Patient Safety Partner role.