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.
Giving families a voice
Our latest national learning report sets out our patient and family engagement process. It also summarises the feedback that we’ve received to date from the families who have been involved in our investigations.
The purpose is to share our family engagement process with other healthcare organisations involved in patient safety investigations. We hope to raise awareness of the value of an effective family engagement process in such investigations.
Latest news / view all
New report emphasises importance of the ‘family voice’ in healthcare investigations
In our latest report, we have outlined our unique approach to working with patients and families. We have set out our experiences so that other organisations can reflect on how it may be applicable to their work.
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.