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.
Never Events: analysis of HSIB’s national investigations
Our latest national report says that 'Never Events' should not be defined as such if they don’t have strong enough barriers in place to stop them happening.
It recommends that seven Never Events on a list of 15 should be removed until better barriers are in place.
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HSIB recommends overhaul to NHS list to ensure ‘Never Events’ are truly never events
Our latest national report states that Never Events should not be defined as such if they don’t have strong enough barriers in place to stop them happening.
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.