We have published our first Response Plan under the new national Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF). Our Plan highlights some areas for us to develop further safety improvements and is subject to monitoring and review by our commissioners.

 

The PSIRF replaces the previous national Serious Incident Framework and requires all NHS Providers to take a new approach to safety incident investigations. This includes the need to consider the impact the working environment and the systems and tools available have upon the ability of individuals to deliver safe care.  It also requires a much greater degree of engagement with patients, carers and relatives, including the length of time to complete an investigation.

 

Under our Response Plan we will be focussing on the following to identify improvements to patient safety:

• Delayed diagnosis of neurological conditions (eg stroke)
• Delayed diagnosis of sepsis
• Appropriate use of the PACCS tool by clinicians. This is an additional piece of software that helps clinicians while undertaking a telephone-based consultation with a patient. It provides clinical summaries of the advice available in the pathways used within the NHS 111 service and also enables the dispatch of ambulances and searches for locally available services which patients can access)
• Appropriate probing and validation of outcomes in NHS111 Pathways. This concerns the assessment of patients within the NHS111 service when speaking to a Health Advisor. A different Pathway is selected depending on the patient’s symptoms with questions and responses leading to an outcome (or ‘disposition’) that determines the urgency with which clinical help is required and the most appropriate time and place for the patient to access this.

 

The intention under PSIRF is to focus on a few, key areas of patient safety so that available resources can be properly directed towards identifying improvements and then checking that these are delivered and have the desired effect. This does not mean that all other types of safety incident are ignored. All our staff are able to log safety incidents on our internal risk management system and these are all reviewed to identify further potential safety risks, seeking to learn from each incidents and identifying other themes which might be included in a future Response Plan.

 

Patients, relatives and carers are able to raise concerns with any member of IC24 staff that they speak to. We welcome all feedback and will report and review this whether reported as an incident or received as a complaint.  It is also possible for members of the public to report a safety concern to the national Patient Safety Team at NHS England - Patient and Public Reporting Website - Reporting Form Step 1 (nrls.nhs.uk)

 

Our Plan will be subject to annual review with commissioners with a summary of improvement work published on our website. The Plan is subject to modification depending on any other, newly emerging theme identified in the reporting on incidents, complaints and other patient/carer feedback.

 

More information on the national launch of PSIRF can be found here; NHS England » Patient Safety Incident Response Framework or contact cg.admin@nhs.net

 

To read our full PSIRF Response Plan follow the link https://online.flippingbook.com/view/692555310/