Dear Colleague,
Introduction of the Health Services Safety Investigations Bill
I am writing in regard to the introduction of the Health Service Safety Investigations Bill, presented to the House of Lords on 15 October 2019. The Health Service Safety Investigations Bill represents a landmark moment for safety and transparency in the NHS, and a victory for those campaigners who have called for major change.
This Government continues to be committed to making the NHS the safest healthcare organisation in the world. To achieve this, the NHS must also become a learning organisation and improve the way serious incidents are investigated so the lessons can be applied widely.
The legislation will establish, for the first time, an independent investigations body, that as a result of conducting high quality investigations, will be responsible for identifying the root-cause of incidents affecting the safety of patients and help to embed new practices across the NHS by making evidence-based recommendations. This will be the first of its kind in the world.
The main elements of the Bill are to:
• establish a new Health Service Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) as a new Non-Departmental Public Body, with powers and independence to conduct investigations into incidents that occur during the provision of NHS services and have or may have implications for the safety of patients;
• create a ‘safe space’ within which participants can provide information for the purposes of an investigation without fear that it will be disclosed to others. Information held in safe space will only be disclosed by the HSSIB in certain
limited circumstances, such as if necessary to address a serious and continuing risk to the safety of a patient, and then only to the extent necessary to allow a person to address the risk; and
• make an amendment to the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, providing a statutory footing for the medical examiners system in the NHS in England to improve the quality and accuracy of death certification, to detect and prevent poor practice and improve the experience of the bereaved
Whilst the NHS is recognised as among the safest healthcare systems in the world, there is still more to do to tackle the 20,000 serious incidents of patient harm across the NHS each year. These incidents have a devastating impact upon patients, their families and staff, and cost the taxpayer up to £2.5 billion each year. By drawing on the approaches used in other safety-critical sectors, HSSIB investigations will take forward the core functions of the existing Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch and ensure the root causes of incidents can be identified and the lessons are widely shared.
To support your consideration of this Bill I have included an overview factsheet with this letter which provides further information on the Bill and the HSSIB. Further factsheets on specific aspects of the Bill including the provision of safe space in investigations and Medical Examiners will be available through the Gov.uk website shortly after the introduction of Bill.
It has always been the intention of the Department for the NHS to provide exceptional care to patients and to reduce the costs and distress caused by healthcare failings.
NADINE DORRIES