Health Services Safety Investigations Body

We investigate patient safety concerns across England to improve NHS care at a national level.

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Latest investigation reports

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The use of lithium for biploar disorder

This report highlights a patient safety issue raised with HSSIB by national stakeholders, who were concerned that some people diagnosed with bipolar disorder were not being offered lithium as a treatment option. Although lithium is recognised as a first-line medication for bipolar disorder, it…

Read the use of lithium for bipolar disorder report
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Insulin: supporting safe self-administration for patients in the community – inequalities in technology and access to care

This report is the fourth and final report in a series considering the self-administration of insulin by adults with diabetes mellitus (diabetes) in community settings. Each report in the series focused on specific groups of people who, due to their circumstances, may be at increased risk of h…

Read the insulin report
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Electronic referrals for ongoing care: risk of losing patient referrals

This report highlights a risk to patient safety associated with the electronic referral service (e-RS), where referrals may be removed from healthcare provider organisation worklists without warning or recognition. We have included local level learning prompts to help provider organisations re…

Read the electronic referrals report

About us

We aim to be the global leader in professional, high quality healthcare safety investigations. We investigate patient safety concerns across England to improve NHS care at a national level. Our investigations do not find blame or liability with individuals or organisations. Information shared with us is confidential and protected by law.


We are a fully independent arm’s length body of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Find out more about us
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Investigations

We can investigate patient safety concerns that occur in England during the provision of healthcare services, and that have or may have implications for the safety of patients.

Our investigations can consider healthcare provided in the NHS and the independent sector. Where an investigation relates to an incident that did not occur in the NHS, we must consider whether NHS systems and practices could be improved because of our investigation.


We can also be directed to investigate a patient safety concern by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

View our patient safety investigations
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Knowledge Exchange

We have launched a new online Knowledge Exchange designed to improve access to practical guidance, learning and expertise for those involved in patient safety investigations.


The new resource is intended to support a wide audience, including patient safety specialists, healthcare professionals, commissioners and policymakers, as well as staff, patients, families and carers involved in investigations.

The Knowledge Exchange is part of our work to implement 'Building investigation excellence: our strategy for strengthening the capability of healthcare investigations’.

View the Knowledge Exchange

News, events and blogs

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“Gold standard” treatment for bipolar disorder too often treated as a last resort

Lithium, the most effective long-term treatment for bipolar disorder, is too often treated as a last resort. This is because of gaps in the systems needed to monitor it safely, according to our repor…
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Our response to new research on quality and safety across NHS and independent care

Published today, the ‘Working Together? Quality and safety in NHS and private hospitals’ report highlights the importance of managing patient safety across, as well as within, healthcare organisation…
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People with learning disabilities and mental health problems missing out on diabetes technology

People with learning disabilities and mental health problems are missing out on technology that could help them manage their diabetes safely, our latest report has found.
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