The briefing, Bias and Discrimination in Patient Safety Investigations, is informed by contributions from a national roundtable held in November 2025. This collaborative event brought together individuals with lived experience, patient advocates, clinicians and senior healthcare leaders.
The briefing identified a series of recommendations, which include:
- embedding explicit consideration of racism within investigation standards
- improving expectations for family involvement
- strengthening leadership accountability for equity
- ensuring more consistent use of data to identify inequalities
- anti-racism to be a core component of patient safety investigations
- robust mechanisms to monitor implementation and impact.
Philippa Styles, Director of Investigations at HSSIB, said: "Patient safety investigations play a vital role in identifying learning and improving care across the NHS.
"If we are to truly improve safety for everyone, we must be explicit about where bias and discrimination exist within NHS patient safety investigations and take meaningful action to address them. This briefing is an important step in bringing together voices and evidence to support a more equitable, inclusive approach to patient safety.
"We are very proud to have worked in partnership with the NHSRHO to facilitate this learning event, and we look forward to supporting the recommendations for vital improvement."
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