Care providers in England should learn and improve from patient safety events. How they do this will change from Autumn 2023.

The new way to do this is the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF).

What is a ‘patient safety event’?

A patient safety event is when something unexpected happens in a patient’s care or treatment. Healthcare providers use different ways to learn from patient safety events. This includes when a patient was, or could have been, harmed. This helps them to make improvements.

Patient safety events can be different types and have different levels of harm. There are different ways that organisations respond and learn from them. Organisations can also learn from things that have gone well while delivering care.

How is PSIRF different from the previous process?

The Serious Incident Framework (SIF) was the old process. PSIRF replaces the SIF. It is a complete change in how organisations approach patient safety.

We have created a policy and plan which outlines how we will implement these new changes.