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The Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF)  is the new way that the NHS looks at Patient Safety Incidents. It has replaced the Serious Incident Framework (2015) and represents a significant shift in the way the NHS responds to patient safety incidents. 

It supports the development and maintenance of an effective patient safety incident response system. PSIRF will lead to more compassionate engagement and involvement for those affected by patient safety incidents and give staff space for reflection. An important factor is to understand how incidents happen. This allows us to learn and improve, in turn creating a safer care system for patients.

The four key objectives are:

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.

Our Trust's Patient Safety Incident Response Plan (PSIRP)

Our Trust is launching PSIRF on 1st April 2024. From this date we will adhere to our Patient Safety Incident Response Plan (PSIRP). We will review our Trust's Safety Profile on an annual basis, and will update our PSIRP accordingly.

Please find our PSIRP here. 

Our Trust's Patient Safety Incident Response Framework Policy

This details the processes that we will follow to investigate patient safety incidents, focusing on systems learning. There are a range of investigation responses that we can use, and we will involve patients/service users and their families and carers in these investigations.

A key aspect of our PSIRF Policy is engagement. The Trust will gain feedback on an ongoing basis from our patients/ service users, their carers and families and staff to make sure we continue to learn from incidents and our PSIRF approaches, to develop and improve them on an ongoing basis.