The Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) is a new way in which Health Care Providers look at patient safety incidents. It has replaced the Serious Incident Framework (SIF) and represents a significant shift in the way that we respond to patient safety incidents.
PSIRF supports the development and maintenance of an effective patient safety incident response system and will lead to more compassionate engagement and involvement for those affected by patient safety incidents.
An important factor of PSIRF is to understand how incidents happen from a systems approach, and this allows us to learn and improve, in turn creating a safer care system for patient.
The four key aims of PSIRF are:
1. Compassionate engagement and involvement of those affected by patient safety incidents
2. Application of a range of system-based approaches to learning from patient safety incidents
3. Considered and proportionate responses to patient safety incidents
4. Supportive oversight focused on strengthening response system functioning and improvement
The aim of our PSIRF plan is to provide guidance and clarity on how we intend to respond to patient safety incidents.
More information about PSIRF can be found on NHS England’s website.