Tell us about a patient safety concern

Complete our online form or phone us on 01252 222200 to tell us about an NHS patient safety concern. What you tell us could lead to a national healthcare safety investigation.

Before you contact us, we recommend reading through the following guidance.

Everything you share with us is in the strictest confidence and in line with our privacy notice.

What we investigate

HSIB can investigate events where something dangerous has happened, whether someone was actually harmed or not. We can also investigate unsafe conditions that could potentially cause harm.

This means you can tell us about something that has already happened, or something that you’re worried might happen if nothing is done to prevent it.

For HSIB to investigate, these events and unsafe conditions must have happened:

• in NHS-funded care
• in England
• after 1 April 2017

Who can tell us about a patient safety concern

We welcome information about patient safety concerns from everyone, including patients and their families, the public and NHS staff.

Whistleblowing

You’re a whistleblower if you’re a worker and you report certain types of wrongdoing. More information about whistleblowing is available on the GOV.UK website.

We do not investigate safety concerns raised by current or former NHS employees that fall outside of our criteria for investigations. You may be able to raise such a concern with your employer under their whistleblowing policy.

We’re hosted by NHS England and NHS Improvement, which are prescribed bodies to which you can make a ‘protected disclosure’, where those disclosures are relevant to their roles. Any concerns you tell HSIB about which fall within our criteria for investigations will not be treated as whistleblowing under NHS England and NHS Improvement’s whistleblowing policy.

How we decide to start a national investigation

Our decision to investigate is based on the:

• scale of risk or harm
• impact on individuals involved and public confidence in the healthcare system
• potential for learning to prevent future harm

You can find out more about the criteria we use to start a national investigation on the 'can we look into your concern?' page.

It’s important to understand that we do not investigate every patient safety concern that is reported to us. If we cannot investigate your patient safety concern, or we are not the right organisation to talk to, there are other organisations you can contact for help and support.

Our national investigations do not replace local investigations by hospitals or other organisations. We do not investigate on behalf of families, NHS staff, organisations or regulators.

Contact

You can tell us about a patient safety concern by filling in our online patient safety concern form or by phoning us on 01252 222200.

This phone number is an answerphone service. When you phone you will hear a recorded message asking you to tell us:

• your name
• your contact number
• the best time for us to phone you

You can include a brief summary of your patient safety concern if you would like to. Please also tell us about any adjustments we need to make or be aware of to make sure the phone interaction is a success for you.

A member of our team will call you back within two working days to complete our patient safety concern form with you.

If you’re unsure about the status of a patient safety concern you’ve already told us about, please email referrals@hsib.org.uk.

If you would like to fill in our patient safety concern form in another format or language, please email referrals@hsib.org.uk. This includes easy read and British Sign Language, as well as any other language or need.