Patient Safety

Practical information, tools and support to improve patient safety in the NHS

We receive confidential reports of patient safety incidents from healthcare staff across England and Wales. Clinicians and safety experts analyse these reports to identify common risks to patients and opportunities to improve patient safety.

We work with organisations providing NHS care, colleges and professional groups to set priorities and develop and disseminate actionable learning. Resources include:

Patient safety alerts, including Rapid Response Reports
Seven Steps series of patient safety guides
Regular feedback on the data we collect
Safety information on specific topics, such as safety of medicines.

Transfer of Patient Safety to NHS Improvement

On 1 April 2016 the statutory patient safety functions previously delivered by NHS England transferred with the national patient safety team to NHS Improvement.

Those statutory functions are the responsibility for:

operating the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS); and
using information from the NRLS, and elsewhere, to develop advice and guidance for the NHS on reducing risks to patients.

From the perspective of providers of NHS-funded care, existing processes and policies for incident reporting and receiving and acting on national patient safety alerts has not changed.