Wessex Patient Safety Collaborative - A Launch & Listen event in Southampton

Creating a safer NHS across Wessex was the reason for the Wessex AHSN ‘listen and launch event’ on 11th November. Though the NHS is already ranked as the safest health care system (Commonwealth Fund) we know there is room to improve. Wessex AHSN brought together over 100 patients, clinicians, managers and front line staff from across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset and south Wiltshire to launch the Wessex Patient Safety Collaborative.

This event’s aim was two-fold, in addition to the launch we wanted to listen to the audience to understand their views regarding patient safety, identify good practice as well as those areas that need further development. This event was very much about the co-design and co-production that are an inherent part of the future of the collaborative.

The day opened with a personal account of how mistakes that can affect the safety of patients can and do happen, it is how we deal with them that determines if we learn from our mistakes.

Dr Suzette Woodward, Director for the Sign up to Safety campaign described how the Patient Safety Collaboratives and the Sign up to Safety campaigns are two sides of the same coin, they must work hand in hand to enable us to deliver a significant positive impact to patient safety.

The highlight of the event was a facilitated conversation with three patient representatives describing some of their experiences as patients and carers and the lessons that they identified from these experiences. They called for us to recognise that patients are people and if you recognise the person then you improve the patient’s experience. Also that if healthcare professionals listen, hear and involve patients from the beginning they will achieve something far better for everyone than if they do it alone.

This event marked the start of the journey for the Wessex Patient Safety Collaborative and it was excellent to witness the delegates engaging and contributing, via our ‘safety wall’ with their ideas and experiences to help identify how the collaborative proceeds. Whilst the Wessex PSC team will facilitate the collaborative and bring resources to bear to assist, it is the front line staffs, commissioners, partner organisations that will be making changes happen.

We will be establishing a Steering Group for the PSC, this group will be responsible for identifying programmes of work and ensuring their successful delivery.

We will be contacting safety leads and launch event attendees in the next few days to validate their contribution at the event as well as asking for further consideration of areas they would like to collaborate on.

Feedback from the day: 

Patient representative: "The patient should be aware of what is planned for them."

Delegate: "Thank you for an inspiring day, it provided real food for thought that I will take away with me".

Presentations made on the day can be downloaded below. The full media release is also available, containing contact information and Notes to Editors.