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 & 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.
Delays to intrapartum intervention once fetal compromise is suspected
We have identified a safety risk in maternity care relating to delays to intrapartum intervention once fetal compromise is suspected. Such delays have the potential to cause harm including stillbirth, hypoxic brain injury and neonatal death.
Intrapartum care covers the start of labour up to the birth of the baby and delivery of the placenta and membranes. Fetal compromise is when there are signs that indicate the baby is not well.
We started this investigation after reviewing the maternity investigations HSIB has carried out to date at NHS trusts across England, as part of our maternity investigation programme.
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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.