Safety recommendation
HSIB recommends that NHS England includes staff health and wellbeing as a critical component of patient safety in the NHS Patient Safety Strategy.
Response:
We know that staff are critical to the safety of healthcare.
The People Promise describes what good staff experience should look like, including ‘we are safe and healthy’. Looking after and growing our workforce where needed – through successful recruitment and retention of staff – and supporting positive approaches to patient safety are aligned with the potential to establish a virtuous cycle. During 2022/23, we coordinated patient safety and staff health and wellbeing strategies and included a patient safety section within the health and wellbeing practitioner support training package.
Further to this, within the NHS patient safety strategy refresh (2023) we are exploring how a focus on staff safety can support patient safety. This means both psychological safety and physical safety, including considering staff engagement, fatigue, burnout, presenteeism, and the impact these can have on risks to patients and staff alike. The annual staff survey gives us valuable data and insights on these topics, including a new and well evidenced set of questions on burnout.
Actions planned to deliver safety recommendation:
- We will create opportunities to link trust patient safety specialists with their health and wellbeing champions and others, such as professional nurse advocates and professional midwifery advocates, by Q2 2023/24. Resources in place to deliver action: 800+ Patient safety specialists in place across trusts in England.
- We are co-creating a joint patient and staff safety plan, including metric(s) of success to support staff with their wellbeing in delivering quality care, by Q2 2023/24. Resources in place to deliver safety action: We are co-creating a joint patient and staff safety plan, including metric(s) of success to support staff with their wellbeing in delivering quality care.
Response received on 12 April 2023.