Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch
Our purpose is to improve patient safety through effective and independent investigations that don’t apportion blame or liability.
Tell us about a patient safety concern
Link to page with safety awareness formAbout us
We conduct independent investigations of patient safety concerns in NHS-funded care across England.
The safety recommendations we make aim to improve healthcare systems and processes in order to reduce risk and improve safety.
HSIB is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and hosted by NHS England and NHS Improvement. We hope that when parliamentary time allows, we will be established as an independent public body.
New investigation: A thematic analysis of HSIB's first 22 national investigations
We have analysed our first 22 national investigations to identify the recurring patient safety themes. We also explore the impact so far of the 85 recommendations we have made to address them.
Early analysis has revealed three broad themes of patient safety risks.
Latest news / view all
Safety body examines ‘life-threatening’ risk of chronic asthma in children under 16
The difficulty in diagnosing and managing chronic childhood asthma is the focus of our latest report.Published on World Asthma Day, it sets out the case of a five-year-old child who…
Investigations
We undertake patient safety investigations through two programmes - national investigations and maternity investigations. In our national programme we investigate up to 30 patient safety concerns each year in order to provide meaningful safety recommendations.
Our teams work closely with patients, families and healthcare staff affected by patient safety incidents and we never attribute blame or liability to individuals.
We welcome information about patient safety concerns from everyone, including patients and their families, the public, NHS staff and organisations.