The Patient Safety Partner (PSP) is a new and evolving role developed by NHS England to help improve patient safety across health care in the UK. Here at Leicester Partnership Trust (LPT), we are excited to welcome a team of PSPs to work alongside our staff, patients, and families to influence and improve safety within our hospital. PSPs can be patients, carers, family members or other lay people (including NHS staff from another organisation).
We have two Patient Safety Partners in place and they will be involved in a range of activities including:
- Talking with patients and staff about safety and what matters to them
- Support the safety training of staff
- Be part of project teams working to improve safe care and our systems
- Join safety groups and team meetings
- Help develop patient safety information resources
- Support the safety team when reviewing incidents
- Help us understand what we do well and how we can do this more of the time
Our Patient Safety Partners have a range of skills and experience, including:
- Have had recent and relevant experience of being a patient, carer of someone using health services.
- Have a background in a role in a high reliability organisation (i.e. road/rail/airline/military etc) or have had a lived experience of an adverse event and having moved beyond it and can now impart the knowledge and insight learned from it and how it can enhance quality of care.
- Putting forward views on behalf of the wider community/groups of patients (not own opinion only).
- Confidence to contribute to discussions in large groups and have the ability to critically challenge our thinking in a constructive positive way.
- Respectfully listening to other points of view and tackling issues sensitively.