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.
Intrapartum stillbirth during COVID-19
The number of intrapartum (labour) stillbirths referred to the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) between April and the end of June 2020 has increased compared to the same time in the previous year.
Since the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization, HSIB has seen a large rise in the number of intrapartum stillbirth referrals to our maternity investigation programme in England.
The data has initiated an HSIB national learning report which will explore the findings from our maternity investigations during this time.
Find out more about the intrapartum stillbirths during COVID-19 investigation
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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.