Ambulance Services: Standards
(asked on 2nd May 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department provides to Ambulance Services about informing local (a) Primary Care Commissioning Committees, (b) Local Medical Committees and (c) groups of Integrated Care Boards about (i) serious incident reports and (ii) investigations arising from delays.
NHS England has published the Serious Incident Framework, which describes the process and procedures to help ensure serious incidents are identified correctly, investigated thoroughly, and learned from to prevent the likelihood of similar incidents happening again.
The framework sets out that serious incidents must be reported by National Health Service providers, such as ambulance services, to their commissioners without delay. Where a serious incident indicates an issue that may have significant implications for the wider healthcare system, or where an incident may cause widespread public concern, the relevant commissioner must consider the need to share information throughout the system. Where the commissioner recognises the need to share information, they must liaise with and alert NHS England.
As outlined in the NHS patient safety strategy, the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) will replace the current Serious Incident Framework. There will be a 12-month period where organisations prepare for the transition to PSIRF, which we expect to be completed by Autumn 2023. During this preparation phase, organisations must continue using the current Serious Incident Framework.
NHS England has published guidance on raising patient safety incidents, which is available at the following link:
The PSIRF sets out the NHS’s approach to developing and maintaining effective systems and processes for responding to patient safety incidents for the purpose of learning and improving patient safety.