NHS England and NHS Improvement have this week published the NHS Patient Safety Strategy, which outlines a vision for the NHS to continuously improve patient safety and the role of a safety culture to deliver it. It sets out plans to use new digital technologies to support learning and create the first patient safety curriculum, training and education framework for the NHS.

Our briefing summarises key points from the strategy. Key points from our briefing are also outlined below:

• The strategy sets out a vision for the NHS to continuously improve patient safety according to patient needs and system priorities, which is responsive to new innovations and research in patient safety.
• This strategy sits alongside the NHS long term plan (LTP) and the LTP implementation framework. Local system plans to deliver the LTP will include local elements of the strategy, with NHSE/I regional teams supporting delivery.
• Three key strategic objectives have been identified to achieve this vision:
  • to improve understanding of safety (insight)
  • to equip patients, staff and partners with the skills and opportunities to improve patient safety throughout the system (involvement)
  • to design and support programmes to deliver effective and sustainable change in the most important areas of safety (improvement)
• Actions to improve understanding of safety include the adoption and promotion of key safety measurement principles and the introduction of a new safety learning system, a framework for responding to and investigating incidents, and a new medical examiner system.
• In order to equip patients, staff and partners with the skills and opportunities they need to improve patient safety, a consistent system-wide syllabus, training and education framework for the NHS will be created, and patient safety partners and specialists established.
• The strategy sets out a number of actions the NHS will take to meet the objective of designing and supporting programmes to deliver effective and sustainable change. These include delivering programmes for national patient safety, maternity and neonatal safety, medicines safety and mental health safety.  Safety of older people and those with learning disabilities, and antimicrobial resistance are other areas highlighted as priorities.