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The renewed Women’s Health Strategy sets out how the UK Government will improve women’s health and healthcare over next 10 years. The renewed Women’s Health Strategy will apply the 10 Year Health Plan’s new care model to make much faster, more decisive progress focused on four health outcomes: The first commitment - and the golden thread of this strategy - is to make women’s voices and choices central in healthcare. The Government will: Establish the women’s voices partnership in 2027, a new space for organisations representing women to inform national decision making, and - over time - regional planning and delivery. The partnership will have a focus on organisations representing women most excluded from traditional services. Develop and implement PREMs, and where appropriate PROMs, for core women’s health pathways over the next 5 years, starting with gynaecological outpatient procedures. Help reduce variation in how GPs listen to and respond to women, using GP Patient Survey data to launch a quality improvement programme within 2 years to help GPs identify problems. Within 3 years, co-produce with women standards of care for the delivery of gynaecological procedures such as hysteroscopy, ensuring all women give informed consent and are offered a choice of pain relief. Improve access to contraception, including ensuring all women can access emergency contraception for free from a pharmacy and encouraging simpler access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) within 2 years. Support the sustainability of abortion services, including changing NHS payments and supporting integrated care boards (ICBs) to implement the NHS abortion commissioning guidance. And we will continue safe access zones outside abortion clinics - all within one year. Work with stakeholders to review the evidence for, and implications of, rolling out a graded model of care for repeated pregnancy loss. Improve care and support between pregnancies for marginalised communities, working together with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Maternity Disparities Consortium. We will engage marginalised communities to co-develop, co-implement and co-evaluate care and support before and between pregnancies, providing the UK’s first blueprint for such care by 2030. Improve perinatal mental health, parent-infant relationship and infant feeding support in 75 local councils. Backed by over £900 million, through the Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies programme we are taking action to create a more integrated, accessible system of support right in the heart of local neighbourhoods. Expand our world-leading prenatal genomic testing offer to provide vital information to women during pregnancy and to support reproductive decision making Second, we will transform NHS performance in services that matter most to women The Government will: Launch a new programme to improve education for girls about their menstrual health, investing an additional £1 million from this year to support targeted work in schools and community settings. This will support girls’ knowledge about menstrual health and when to seek healthcare. Introduce a menopause question into the routine NHS Health Check this year, raising awareness of symptoms and giving women the confidence to seek timely help. Shift women’s health services into primary care and community settings, including a single point of access for gynaecology referrals and redesigned clinical pathways for heavy periods, menopause and uro-gynaecology within 3 years. Fund this year a specialist centre in each region for group-based approaches to women’s health pathways including contraception, heavy periods, uro-gynaecology, and menopause. Each regional specialist centre will act as a demonstrator and centre of excellence, supporting local areas to design, implement and evaluate group-based pathways. We will roll these out in areas of highest health need or highest health inequality first. Prioritise menstrual problems (caused by issues such as endometriosis, fibroids and adenomyosis) and menopause as 2 of the first 9 pathways to be established in the new virtual hospital, NHS Online, launching in 2027. Support early diagnosis of osteoporosis and improved bone health by funding 20 new dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scanners in priority locations, enabled by £2.6 million investment in the financial year ending 2026. This is on top of the £1.9 million already invested in the financial year ending 2025. This will provide an estimated 60,000 scans per year and improve image quality for patients. Improve safety in maternity services, providing better care and improve women’s experiences around birth through the NHS Maternal Care Bundle and acting on the findings of the independent National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation and the Secretary of State’s National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce. Improve facilities to ensure bereaved parents have appropriate spaces. This year we allocated up to £9 million to over 40 trusts to enhance their bereavement facilities or estates. Third, we will support all women to lead healthy, prosperous lives The Government will: Deliver our aim to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040, including rolling out home testing kits for human papilloma virus (HPV), providing greater convenience and access. We will make HPV vaccination available in local community pharmacies to reach those who missed school vaccinations. Both are available from this year. Expand genomic testing for inherited causes of major diseases within a year, including BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes associated with higher lifetime risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Roll out breast pain and post menopausal bleeding clinics nationally by the end of 2026 and invest in our wider community diagnostic estate as we deliver our new National Cancer Plan for England. Tackle the biggest causes of death and poor health in women by improving our focus on cardiovascular disease risk management and care, publishing a new modern service framework this year. Tackle rising obesity rates - a risk for multiple women’s health problems, including some cancers. We will support women to lead more active lives and improve their diets through campaigns, investment in sports, digital tools and supporting access to healthier food. Support women to drink less alcohol and smoke less - including creating the first smoke-free generation. Improve care for women living with frailty and dementia, publishing a modern service framework for frailty and dementia. Halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) within a decade. As part of the health system’s contribution, we will invest up to £50 million to transform support for victims of child sexual abuse and exploitation across every NHS region in England, as well as rolling out a domestic abuse and sexual violence referral service and additional investment for victims and survivors. Improve support for women sleeping rough through helping councils to design and deliver effective outreach and services alongside NHS services. Support women to enter and remain in work through better treatment and management of MSK conditions. MSK conditions are one of the leading conditions reported by people who are economically inactive (including due to long-term sickness), with women at higher risk than men. Support women affected by menopause in their jobs by introducing new requirements on employers with 250 or more employees to publish an action plan including support for employees experiencing menopause, starting in 2027, subject to secondary legislation. Partner with Vanguard employers as part of the Keep Britain Working Review to test how we can better support good health in work - with a focus on women’s health across the life course. Give carers more power and convenience through the NHS App. When fully rolled out, the new My Carer function in the NHS App will allow people to securely prove they are providing care, book appointments and communicate with their loved one's care team. Fourth, we will create an approach to research and development that works for and empowers women The Government will: Accelerate the deployment and spread of innovations that benefit women’s health, launching a FemTech healthcare challenge within 2 years with a pot of £1.5 million. This will enable systems to work with promising FemTech developers addressing areas of unmet need, with a focus on community service models addressing health inequalities. Launch the NIHR R&D Innovation Catalyst this year to provide wrap around support for high priority innovations, with R&D funding available across all translational phases of research if main milestones are met. We will ensure the R&D Innovation Catalyst considers women’s health innovations throughout its operation, both for reproductive and pregnancy conditions, and by ensuring equity in its approach to innovations for any disease. Ensure women are not left behind in research. From now, NIHR will only fund research that appropriately considers sex-based differences. We will also make it easier for women to participate in clinical trials by integrating the Be Part of Research service on the NHS App - and in time automatically match patients with studies based on their own health data and interests. Support female founders in health and care. Within a year, through the NIHR we will launch a new accelerator for female founders with innovations addressing women’s health priorities. Our new programme will provide funding and support through a programme including mentoring and advice for entrepreneurs, market testing and access, scale-up and commercialisation models.

The 8th Nordic Conference on Research in Patient Safety and Quality in Healthcare 2026 brings together experts, researchers, and professionals from across the Nordic-Baltic region to discuss how health and social care systems can adapt to change while ensuring safety, quality, and equity. Keynote speakers include leading voices in health policy, research, and digital transformation: Lasse Lehtonen (Kela), Liina-Kaisa Tynkkynen (Finnish institute for health and welfare), Anne Moen (University of Oslo), Josephine Ocloo (King’s College London), and Henrique Martins (Universidade da Beira Interior / ISCTE-IUL). The program features national and regional perspectives on client and patient safety, discussions on the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare, and presentations on medication safety, rehospitalization, home treatment, and client safety in social services. The conference also explores key issues such as digital health literacy, citizen engagement, educational innovations, and the impact of inequity in client and patient safety. Together, these sessions aim to strengthen collaboration, share evidence-based practices, and inspire progress toward safer and more effective health and social care across the Nordic-Baltic region. The conference also aims to foster dialogue between health and social care quality and safety and warmly welcomes social care experts, researchers, and practitioners to join the conference. Register

Working across frontline emergency care, patient safety and digital patient safety over the course of my 22-year career in the NHS has given me a unique perspective on how digital systems shape real clinical practice. As a paramedic now working as a Clinical Safety Officer within NHS Wales, I’ve seen first‑hand how digital tools can support safer care—but also how they can contribute to patient harm when things don’t work as intended. In this blog, I reflect on the challenges of identifying issues and, more importantly, assessing patient harm in a digital context. These thoughts aren’t theoretical, they come from day‑to‑day reality: the calls, the investigations, the conversations and the moments where something in the digital healthcare system doesn’t work the way it should—and a patient feels the impact. I’m sharing these thoughts to stimulate conversation, hopefully build shared understanding and help strengthen our collective approach to digital patient safety across the UK. The growing complexity of digital healthcare Digital healthcare has evolved rapidly, and with that evolution comes complexity. Electronic health records, diagnostic platforms, telehealth solutions, national and local systems—all interacting with each other in ways that aren’t always obvious. When something goes wrong, pinpointing where the issue originated can be incredibly challenging. Was it a configuration setting? A workflow design flaw? A user misunderstanding? A vendor update? A mismatch between national and local versions of the same system? Add to that, the fact that some third‑party suppliers are unable or unwilling to share detailed technical information (I assume due to concerns that competitors may gain access to it) makes it even harder to determine how the incident occurred or how to prevent it from happening again. Interconnected systems, shared responsibilities Because digital care rarely sits within a single organisation, the responsibilities for harm often cross boundaries too. Different organisations use systems differently. Local configurations vary. Some teams rely on national services; others are still using legacy versions. All of this makes investigation slower, more complicated and highly dependent on strong cross‑organisational collaboration. No single organisation can fully assess digital‑related harm in isolation, but still we try! The challenge for non-patient‑facing Health Bodies For organisations like mine, there is an added complexity: we don’t have direct clinical access to patients. This means our ability to assess harm depends on the engagement of colleagues across health boards and trusts—many of whom are experiencing significant operational pressures. Data security and privacy Sharing information about harm while protecting patient data is essential, but not always simple. We must balance transparency with strict confidentiality requirements. Digital errors, diagnostic risks and human interpretation Not all harm is caused directly by digital systems. Sometimes the system works correctly, but the presentation of the data creates an issue, or the clinician/user interaction or interpretation of the data is the issue. Other times, issues stem from algorithmic limitations, technical malfunctions or messaging fabric (infrastructure that connects the system components and allows them to communicate) problems. Determining whether harm originated with the tool, the user or the interaction between them is rarely straightforward, and tools like Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) are vital in breaking this complexity down. Training, local workarounds and the gaps no one talks about Training remains a significant challenge. National bodies like mine are not responsible for delivering frontline training, and local approaches vary widely. This leads to several risks: Depth and quality of training varies. Important system features may be misunderstood or overlooked. Safety considerations are not always emphasised during training. Local 'shortcuts'—never designed, tested or approved—become normal practice. Once these shortcuts become embedded in everyday workflows, they can be incredibly difficult to unwind. Yet they often play a significant role in digital‑related incidents. The existing DCB0129 and DCB0160 standards provide a useful foundation, but they offer limited guidance on how to investigate and learn from digital incidents. They were designed at a time when digital healthcare was far less complex than it is today. Suppliers don’t like to highlight their products weaknesses or errors made; therefore, there is vast variation in the quality of investigation reports shared post incident. Rather than worrying about reputational damage, I wish the focus was on candour and opportunities for learning and development. The timeliness problem: when harm takes time to surface Digital harm isn’t always immediate. It may be a misfiled result, a confusing display or a workflow that gradually introduces delay. Additional challenges include: Variation in national policy timescales (in Wales six differing policies provide timescale guidance). The need for clinical review to confirm harm. Limited capacity among clinicians supporting digital investigations. This can make it difficult to meet regulatory expectations for timely disclosure—even when everyone involved is committed to doing the right thing. Freedom to Speak Up: a critical enabler of early detection Speaking up plays a vital role in identifying digital‑related safety issues early. Many concerns emerge informally at first—“this doesn’t look right” or “this field always causes confusion.” If staff feel unsure about raising these concerns, they can remain hidden until harm occurs. Strengthening a Freedom to Speak Up culture is essential. It provides all staff a protected route to escalate concerns, even when they feel uncertain or worry that a system issue might be dismissed as user error or a training gap. I firmly believe that a strong speaking up culture means digital risks are more likely to be surfaced early, before they become incidents. A rapidly changing safety landscape Wales has seen significant changes in digital governance and health policy in recent years, from the transition from NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS) to Digital Health & Care Wales (DHCW) to updates in national structures (NHS Executive now NHS Performance & Improvement) and regulatory expectations. As I type, the National Health Service (Concerns, Complaints and Redress Arrangements) (Wales) Regulations 2011 (often referred to as 'Putting Things Right') are undergoing review and update. These shifts can create uncertainty about roles, responsibilities and reporting pathways. When something goes wrong, it’s not always clear who is responsible for what—and this ambiguity can complicate harm assessment. Where digital meets traditional healthcare Digital systems are embedded into clinical workflows, communication pathways and multi‑team processes. Every interface, integration point and manual interaction/data entry represents a potential source of risk. Reviewing these interconnected pathways is rarely quick or straightforward, but it is essential for understanding how digital harm occurs and how it can be prevented. Conclusion and call to action: building a safer digital future together The reflections in this paper highlight the complexity of digital patient safety work. Digital systems bring enormous potential for improving care, but they also introduce new risks that we are still learning how to manage. To address these challenges, we need a coordinated national approach that brings together healthcare organisations, digital suppliers, clinical safety experts, policymakers and frontline staff. This means: Updating and strengthening digital safety standards. Improving consistency in both incident investigation and harm assessment. Enhancing training and digital literacy. Supporting timely, transparent reporting. Facilitating availability of clinicians to undertaken harm reviews. Encouraging openness and speaking up. Improved incident data triangulation. Thematic analysis of incidents and nationally shared learning. Building stronger cross‑organisational collaboration. Most importantly, we need a culture where digital concerns are raised early and acted upon quickly. The opportunity ahead is significant, as are some of the challenges… But I truly believe that by working together, we can shape a safer digital health landscape—one that protects patients, supports professionals and ensures that innovation enhances care rather than complicating it. Further reading on the hub: How do we harness technology responsibly to safeguard and improve patient care? NHS England warns electronic patient record could pose ‘serious risks to patient safety’: what can we learn? The foundations for a safe digital service delivery in health—A blog by Rob Ludman Applying a robust approach to digital clinical safety in diagnosis b

This conference focuses on next steps for patient safety in England. Areas for discussion include implementation of streamlined oversight, strengthened patient and staff voice, improved use of data, and workforce support and development for the delivery of safer care. Policy developments & implications It will bring together stakeholders and policymakers to consider the way forward following the Government’s acceptance of recommendations from Dr Penny Dash’s Review of patient safety across the health and care landscape. Attendees will also examine the newly published NHS trust performance league tables, including how results are adjusted for fairness and transparency, and how findings will be used to scope and initiate targeted improvement support. Key roles, oversight & responsiveness Sessions assess how roles and responsibilities across oversight and investigative bodies can be streamlined and clarified, including the National Quality Board, the CQC and the HSSIB. Implementation of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework will be discussed, alongside next steps for patient experience structures and service improvement, as well as advocacy processes following the expected integration of local Healthwatch functions within ICBs. Quality strategy, addressing inequalities & implementing patient empowerment Responsibilities of commissioners and providers will be assessed, alongside priorities for the development of a national quality strategy in adult social care. Further sessions will look at oversight and complaints processes, including strategies for identifying and addressing inequalities in safety outcomes between groups, as well as priorities for public awareness around new advocacy options and initiatives. Approaches to achieving consistent application of Martha’s Rule across settings will also be discussed - including priorities for staff support, supervision and organisational culture - as well as ways forward for improving quality in primary care, looking at practical steps for embedding Jess’s Rule in general practice. Leadership & the workforce Best practice for staff supervision and team working will be reviewed, as well as addressing the impact of workforce capacity pressures on safety and delivery. We also expect discussion on workforce balance and what resources will be needed to maintain safety standards as more care is delivered in community settings. Innovation & digital tools Delegates will discuss the use of early-warning systems and other digital tools, particularly with regard to maternity outcomes. The impact of electronic patient records on patient safety so far and key implementation considerations going forward will also be discussed. Register