Patient safety - agencies

This section provides information on Government bodies and other organisations which are relevant to patient safety and its different aspects.

You may also want to look at:

The agencies are arranged by country and listed alphabetically:

UK wide

Health Foundation
The Health Foundation works to continuously improve the quality of healthcare in the UK and aims to develop “the technical skills, leadership, capacity, knowledge and the will for change, that are essential for real and lasting improvement”. The Foundation's Safer Patients Initiative ran from 2004 to 2008 as a large-scale programme and underlined the importance of addressing issues of harm and safety at organisational level. Information about the Programme, learning from it , case studies and information about the Foundation’s related work on patient safety are available at Safer Patients Initiative, and Inspiring improvement in patient safety.
A network was developed from this initiative. The group “test, develop and explore ways of building improvement skills and making healthcare safer for patients” – see Safer Patients Network.

A current programme of work is Safer Clinical Systems which is focussing on improving clinical handovers and prescribing. The Patient safety topic area also provides details of relevant  Health Foundation publications and the work of the Foundation on particular programmes and research projects.

England

The key agency in England for patient safety activities is the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA). The NPSA currently hosts the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) The NRLS aims to help improve patient care in the NHS with rapid responses to incidents, analysis of incidents that come to the NPSA via the National Reporting and Learning System and the collaborative development of actions that can be implemented locally.
From April 2012 some of the functions of the NPSA will be taken on by the NHS Commissioning Board, a new body which is being developed by the current coalition Government - see Developing the NHS Commissioning Board update.

Action against Medical Accidents
Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA) is the independent charity which promotes better patient safety and justice for people who have been affected by a medical accident.

Care Quality Commission
The Care Quality Commission is the health and social care regulator for England, established by the Health and Social Care Act 2008, and came into operation in April 2009. Its activities include the registration of health and social care providers, monitoring and inspection of all health and adult social care, regular reviewing to improve services and reporting the outcomes of this work.

Central Alerting System
The Central Alerting System enables alerts and urgent patient safety specific guidance to be accessed at any time. Safety alerts, emergency alerts, drug alerts, Dear Doctor letters and Medical Device Alerts issued on behalf of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, National Patient Safety Agency and the Department of Health are available on this website.

Department of Health: Patient safety
The Department of Health patient safety pages provide information on their approach and long term strategy for assuring patient safety in all healthcare settings. There are also links to key patient safety documents.

Health Protection Agency (HPA)
The HPA is an independent body that protects the health and wellbeing of the population.
 
Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
The HSE is responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in England and Wales and Scotland.

Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP)
HQIP works in partnership with healthcare stakeholders to improve quality of care and provide value for money. HQIP also aims to support and enable a culture of quality improvement.

Infection Prevention Society
The Infection Prevention Society exists to promote the advancement of education in infection prevention and control for the benefit of the community as a whole, in particular by the provision of training courses, accreditation schemes, education materials, meetings and conferences. The IPS incorporates the Infection Control Nurses Association.

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)
The principal aim of this agency is to safeguard the public's health. It does this by making sure that medicines and medical devices work properly and are acceptably safe, and by responding promptly when new concerns come to light.

National Clinical Assessment Service
The National Clinical Assessment Service (NCAS) works to resolve concerns about the practice of doctors, dentists and pharmacists by providing case management services to health care organisations and to individual practitioners. It aims to clarify concerns and make recommendations to help practitioners return to safe practice.

National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA)
The NPSA's role is to improve the safety of NHS patients by promoting a culture of learning and reporting from patient safety incidents, and to manage the national reporting and learning system to support this function. The NPSA has produced a range of resources to inform and support patient safety activities. From April 2012 some of the functions of the NPSA will be taken on by the NHS Commissioning Board, a new body which is being developed by the current coalition Government.

National Research Ethics Service
The National Research Ethics Service has a dual mission: to protect the rights, safety, dignity and wellbeing of research participants; and to facilitate and promote ethical research that  is of potential benefit to participants, science and society.

National Resource for Infection Control
A project developed by health care professionals, aimed at being a single-access point to existing resources within infection control for both infection control and all other health care staff.

NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement: Safer Care
The Safer Care programme aims to build an NHS where every member of staff has the passion, confidence and skills to eliminate harm to patients. These pages include tools for safer care and patient safety news.

NHS Litigation Authority
The NHSLA is a Special Health Authority (part of the NHS), responsible for handling negligence claims made against NHS bodies in England.

Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland the HSC Safety Forum is taking a lead in promoting shared learning and leadership in patient safety activities.

Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS): Safety, quality and standards: safety and quality policy
The Safety, Quality and Standards Directorate takes forward the Department's programme for improving the safety and quality of health and social care services delivered to people in Northern Ireland. This page within the DHSSPS website lists some of the initiatives covered by the policy and programme and signposts standards, guidance and legislation.
 
Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: Public health policy
The Public Health Policy Team is responsible for emergency planning and for health promotion, disease prevention and health protection.

Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: Clinical and social care governance support services (CSCG)
The CSCG Support Team has recently completed a four year work programme in which it developed a range of products which can be accessed via these pages. The work of the team is now closely aligned with the HSC Safety Forum which takes the lead in supporting safety and quality improvement in health and social care.

HSC Safety Forum
The forum was launched in 2007 to 'to promote a safety culture within health and social care organisations and share best practice, supporting organisations in implementing evidence-based interventions proven to reduce harm and save lives and measuring patient safety improvement'. The forum has a role in facilitating education and training, promoting collaboration and patient/client participation in safety work.

Northern Ireland Adverse Incident Centre (NIAIC)
This section within the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety website describes the work of the centre which is to 'record and investigate reported adverse incidents involving medical devices, non-medical equipment, plant and building systems used in health and personal services in Northern Ireland'. The section includes information on adverse incident reporting and information and updates about medical devices.

Northern Ireland Medicines Governance Team
The website provides access to current medicine safety policies, guidelines and safety memoranda and a 'Medication Safety Today' newsletter is also available.

Public Health Agency for Northern Ireland
The agency was launched in April 2009 and brings together a range of functions within health and social care which focus on improving health and wellbeing in Northern Ireland. This includes the former Health Promotion Agency and the Healthcare Associated Infection (HCAI) surveillance site.
 
Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA)
'The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) is the independent body responsible for monitoring and inspecting the availability and quality of health and social care services in Northern Ireland, and encouraging improvements in the quality of those services.' The reviews undertaken by RQIA are based on the 2006 'Quality standards for health and social care'. In 2009 the duties of the Mental Health Commission were also transferred to RQIA. Reports based on the RQIA reviews and inspections are at Review reports.

Scotland

The focus of patient safety activity in Scotland is the delivery of the Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) which is being implemented in every acute hospital in the country. The Programme is being co-ordinated by Healthcare Improvement Scotland which also includes other initiatives on aspects of safety.

Health Protection Scotland (HPS)
Health Protection Scotland was established by the Scottish Executive to strengthen and co-ordinate health protection in Scotland providing expert and advice and support to government, NHS, other organisations and the public on health protection issues. HPS also aims to provide a knowledge base for health protection research and development.

Healthcare Environment Inspectorate (HEI)
The Healthcare Environment Inspectorate is part of Healthcare Improvement Scotland. It focuses on reducing healthcare associated infection (HAI) risk to patients through a rigorous inspection framework. The process involves announced and unannounced inspections of the acute hospitals. The Inspectorate also draws on and contributes to the broader improvement agenda across NHSScotland.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland: Patient safety
Healthcare Improvement Scotland has taken on the activities of the former NHS Quality Improvement Scotland and the Care Commission. The organisation’s work programme involves the provision of guidance and standards, improvement and implementation support, assurance, scrutiny, measurement and reporting. It takes a lead role in co-ordinating the work of the Scottish Patient Safety Programme and also includes the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate and Scottish Medicines.

Incident Reporting and Investigation Centre (IRIC)
IRIC co-ordinates the investigation of adverse incidents on behalf of the Scottish Government Health Directorates. The Centre undertakes investigations involving medical devices and estates equipment and where necessary issues safety warnings such as Hazard Notices and Safety Action Notices. The Centre has close links with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in England.

Quality Alliance Board
The Quality Alliance Board (QAB) was formed in 2010 and will support and drive the implementation and delivery of the Scottish Quality Strategy. A Delivery Group for each of the strategy’s three Quality Ambitions (safe, effective and person centred) will report to the QAB.

Wales

In Wales 1000 Lives Plus, a five year national programme to improve the quality of patient care and reduce avoidable harm  across NHS Wales, is the focus of patient safety activity across Wales and is currently implementing a range of initiatives. The National Patient Safety Agency is also a key agency for patient safety activities in Wales.

Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW)
CSSIW encourages the improvement of social care, early years and social services by; regulating, inspecting and reviewing and providing professional advice to ministers and policy makers.

Clinical Governance Support and Development Unit (CGSDU): Patient safety
The CGSDU supports local NHS organisations in implementing national policy and strategy for improving patient safety and quality, helping to interpret national requirements at local level, providing education and support for board level teams.
 
The NHS Wales Governance e-Manual explains the context of patient safety in Wales. Information about patient safety is in the Putting the citizen first heading.

Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW)
The Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) was launched in 2004 to implement a programme of inspection in relation to quality, national clinical standards and patient safety focusing upon clinical governance, patient care across agencies and sectors and strengthening public involvement. HIW focuses on inspection and investigation of NHS bodies in Wales and Welsh NHS funded care to ensure that quality, patient safety, clinical governance requirements and, from April 2006, national health care standards are complied with.

Informing Healthcare: Patient safety
Informing Healthcare is the Welsh Assembly Government's programme which was set up to improve health services in Wales by introducing new ways of accessing, using and storing information. Clinical risk management and the safety of patients is a key process in the development of Informing Healthcare products, and forms part of the wider quality assurance processes in the programme.
 
National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA)
The NPSA co-ordinates efforts to learn from patient safety incidents occurring in the NHS. This includes responsibility for designing and implementing a system for reporting patient safety incidents involving NHS patients in England and Wales. The NPSA is closely involved with the 1000 Lives Campaign in Wales along with its other partners: National Leadership and Innovation Agency for Healthcare, National Public Health Service for Wales, Wales Centre for Health and the Clinical Governance Support and Development Unit.

NCAS Wales
The National Clinical Assessment Service (NCAS) works to resolve concerns about the practice of doctors, dentists and pharmacists by providing case management services to health care organisations and to individual practitioners. It aims to clarify concerns and make recommendations to help practitioners return to safe practice.

Public Health Wales
Public health Wales provides professionally independent public health advice and services to protect the health and wellbeing of Wales. This includes public health, health protection, child protection and services relating to the surveillance, prevention and control of communicable diseases.  

Welsh Healthcare Associated Infection Programme (WHAIP)
The WHAIP team is part of Public Health Wales and  provides independent professional advice and information about healthcare associated infections to health professionals in Wales, to the Welsh Assembly Government and its advisory committee, the Welsh Healthcare Associated Infection sub group. The team also provides national leadership and support for the Welsh Assembly Government’s strategies for Healthcare associated infection, and is responsible for providing information to the public about healthcare associated infection.