Top Picks: Women campaigning for patient safety

Summary

Over the years, we have worked with many amazing women who share our aim of reducing avoidable harm in health and social care. In this blog, to mark International Women’s Day 2024, we are celebrating women who campaign for patient safety. 

Content

These articles, interviews and resources from the hub shine a light on just some of the women who are working hard to prevent avoidable harm and strengthen patient safety. Often informed by lived experience, their insights, expertise and tenacity have helped shape conversation and change. Click on the titles to read each one in full. 

Interview with Kath Sansom, Founder of Sling the Mesh 

Kath talks to us about why she set up Sling the Mesh and the significant impact that campaigning has on her life. She also highlights the need to establish systems that will identify and prevent avoidable harm, including long term tracking to investigate trends of harm, reporting of industry payments to clinicians and making logging side effects mandatory for healthcare professionals.

Campaigning for safety as a patient, family member or advocate

In this video we hear from campaigners Sandra Igwe, CEO of the Motherhood Group, and Soojin Jun, co-founder of Patients for Patient Safety US. They talk about their experiences of engaging with the system, the challenges they have faced and offer advice for others seeking to campaign for change in healthcare.

People with eating disorders should not face stigma in the health system and barriers to accessing support

In this blog, Hope Virgo, an eating disorder survivor and mental health campaigner, looks at the barriers people face when they try to access support, and talks about her own experience of being told she was ‘not thin enough for support’. She calls for long-overdue action on funding, training and awareness of eating disorders within the NHS.

Interview with Isabela Castro, patient advocate

Isabela shares how her experience of losing her baby daughter to avoidable harm in 2006 led to her involvement in patient safety advocacy. She talks to us about the vital role of patient campaigners in driving the movement to reduce avoidable harm, and why we need to shift from patient inclusion to belonging in order to improve patient safety.

Leading for safety: A conversation with Jane Plumb, Founder of Group B Strep Support

Jane Plumb is the Co-Founder of Group B Strep Support and the Women's Voices Lead for the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists. In this interview, she emphasises the importance of actively involving patients and families in patient safety discussions so that improvements can be informed by their insights and experiences.

Interview with Marie Lyon, chair of the Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests

In this interview, Marie Lyon talks about her campaign for justice for families affected by hormone pregnancy tests, why she is passionate about reforming medicines regulation and the important role patient campaigners play in improving patient safety.

Do you campaign for patient safety?

Are you involved in a campaign that has patient safety at its heart? Would you like to tell us more about your work and the changes you’d like to see?

Perhaps you are a patient or relative with lived experience that you would like to share? Or a healthcare professional with insights around the patient safety challenges and potential solutions?

Get in touch with us at content@pslhub.org