HSJ Patient Safety Awards 2026: Winners revealed

The winners of the HSJ Patient Safety Awards 2026 were announced last night, recognising outstanding efforts to make care safer.

This year’s event attracted 427 entries, with 217 shortlisted across 25 categories.

Categories included the Improving Medicines Safety Award, the Urgent and Emergency Care Safety Initiative of the Year, the Maternity, Midwifery and Neonatal Safety Initiative of the Year, and Patient Safety Team of the Year.

The 25 awards span three broad areas: clinical and specialist excellence, organisation-wide change, and service and system innovation. They also include awards for digital clinical safety, surgical care, the use of data and analytics, and patient involvement.

Opening the event, HSJ editor Alastair McLellan said patient safety had returned to the top of the health agenda over the past year, but warned the debate had focused overwhelmingly on maternity services.

He said safety in emergency departments and acute wards was receiving less attention, with debate instead dominated by access and waiting times. He noted that long accident and emergency department waits, particularly those of more than eight hours, were strongly associated with increased mortality.

Mr McLellan also praised those shortlisted for achieving improvements despite the pressures facing the NHS. He said work to prevent patient harm was not always welcomed amid unprecedented demand and the drive to recover performance, adding that the finalists’ achievements showed “what is possible in even the most unpromising situations”.

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Source: HSJ, 29 September 2026