New FAQs on applying the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework outside of NHS trusts

We’re revisiting the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) as NHS England has published a set of FAQs about applying PSIRF in non-NHS trust organisations. The new(ish) national patient safety investigation framework sets the NHS’s approach to developing and maintaining systems and processes for responding to patient safety incidents for the purposes of learning and improving patient safety. As readers will know, PSIRF replaces the Serious Incident or SI framework and removes the “serious incident” classification for investigation.

As those involved in risk management will know, under PSIRF, NHS organisations and independent provider organisations that provide NHS-funded secondary care under the NHS Standard Contract are required to adopt this framework. They must investigate any “unintended or unexpected events (including omissions)” which could have caused or caused harm to patients. The framework has been described as a “window into the system”.

NHS England’s FAQs are based on the questions that have been asked by organisations and help clarify how the PSRIF can be applied across services and commissioning structures.

The FAQs are based around four principles:

1. Compassionate engagement and involvement of those affected by patient safety incidents
2. Application of a range of system-based approached to learning from patient safety incidents
3. Considered and proportionate responses to patient safety incidents
4. Supportive oversight focused on strengthening response system functioning and improvement

The FAQs also cover how providers of commissioned and non-commissioned services can access PSRIF training.

Get in touch, if you’d like to discuss PSIRF or the interface of PSIRF with your organisation’s duty of candour, inquests and claims. You can read our article on the interface between PSIRF and inquests here.