Patient Safety

Patient safety is focused upon the avoidance of unintended or unexpected harm to people during the provision of health care. At Stockport NHS Foundation Trust patient safety is a priority and we aim to minimise harm from patient safety incidents and drive improvements in safety and quality. Patients should be treated in a safe environment and protected from avoidable harm.

 

Keeping Patients Safe

The care of our patients is our priority at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, and we are committed to providing high quality and safe care.

Keeping you safe and well while in hospital is a priority for the staff looking after you. There are also some simple things you can do to help keep yourself safe during your hospital stay.

A national NHS leaflet, ‘Simple steps to keep you safe during your hospital stay’, and information video are available which provide tips and advice on simple things patients can do to look after their safety during a hospital stay.

While the safety of patients is a priority for NHS staff, the leaflet and video provide advice on things patients can do themselves to help stay safe, such as wearing the right footwear to protect themselves from slips and falls, doing leg and ankle exercises to help prevent blood clots and hand washing to prevent the spread of infections.

Patients are encouraged to view the video and read the leaflet before coming into hospital, as these simple things can make a big difference to staying safe and well during their stay.

The video and leaflet can also be accessed on the NHS England website on this link.

The leaflet is available in a number of different languages, and a British Sign Language (BSL) version of the video is available.

For further information regarding your care during your hospital stay, please also refer to our Your Guide to Staying in Hospital leaflet.

 

Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF)

The Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) outlines the NHS’s approach to developing and maintaining effective systems and processes for responding to patient safety incidents for the purpose of learning and improving patient safety. This represents a significant shift from the previous Serious Incident Framework (SIF), and increases the focus on understanding how incidents happen, including the factors that contribute to them.

Our Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) policy will set out how Stockport NHS Foundation Trust will respond to patient safety incidents and events in line with the requirements of the PSIRF. The focus will be on learning from patient safety incidents and improving patient safety across the Trust.

An important factor of PSIRF is to understand how and why incidents occur, and how this can allow us to learn and improve, to create a safer care system for patients.

The four keys aims of PSIRF are:

• Compassionate engagement and involvement of those affected by patient safety incidents
• Application of a range of system-based approaches to learning from patient safety incidents
• Considered and proportionate responses to patient safety incidents
• Supportive oversight focused on strengthening response system functioning and improvement

The trust has developed a Patient Safety Incident Response Plan (PSIRP) that is specific to our hospital and services and provides guidance on how we intend to respond to patient safety incidents. Our PSIRP can be accessed via this link (include link to our PSIRP)

For further information regarding PSIRF, please refer to the NHS England`s website

Stockport NHS FT - Patient Safety Incident Response Plan 2023-25

Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) policy - 01.04.24