Risk of surgical swabs being left inside patients
We've investigated the risk of unintentional ‘retained’ swabs after invasive procedures. The i…
Read moreWe aim to work with a wide range of organisations during our patient safety investigations. This helps to make sure that we take account of the different organisations and groups that can impact on any specific patient safety concern and allows us to investigate at the system level.
Our contact and involvement with organisations can include working with:
- Healthcare providers to explore the causes of patient safety incidents, including speaking with staff and carrying out observations.
- Voluntary and charitable groups to understand more about their work and about patient and family experiences.
- National organisations to understand more about their role, remit, or to access information that could help our investigation. Our work with national organisations can also include discussions around safety recommendations to national organisations.
- Companies to help us better understand equipment or technology they produce that is being used in healthcare.
- Academic bodies to help us understand research projects or findings that can inform our investigations.
When we first contact an organisation about an investigation, we:
- provide more information about the role of the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) and the investigation
- introduce the investigation team and offer an opportunity to speak with us to agree ways of working.
Organisations involved in HSSIB investigations should be aware of our powers under the Health and Care Act 2022. Any information they share with us is protected from disclosure. We hope this helps organisations to feel confident when they ask their staff to help improve patient safety.
Where we have worked closely with organisations during our investigation this is stated in our report. We do not name local healthcare organisations in our reports but do indicate the type of organisations we have worked with (for example, a GP practice or an independent hospital). We do name national organisations that have assisted in our work and reflect the views shared by those organisations in our reports.
Draft HSSIB investigation reports are shared on consultation with organisations that have worked with us. They’re also shared with other national organisations that may have an interest in our reports. This is for comment to help us check and challenge our findings, safety recommendations, or safety learning.
Our communications team works with organisations involved in our investigations to make sure they know when a report is due to be published and support how the safety learning from our reports can be shared.