Patient Safety Commission
Supporting a culture of safety, continuous learning, and sustainable improvement.

Overview
The largest safety improvement initiative in the history of the NHS
Creating continuous improvement in maternity units, emergency departments, mental health trusts, GP practices and care homes.
Detailed Programme Information
Supporting a culture of safety, continuous learning, and sustainable improvement
The South West Patient Safety Collaborative (PSC), hosted by the South West AHSN is one of the PSCs across England delivering the National Patient Safety Improvement Programmes (SIPs) 2023-24.
SIPs aim to support and encourage a culture of safety, continuous learning, and improvement across the health and care system, helping to reduce the risk of harm and make care safer for all. They support five core areas of work:
Our impact
Working with our partners we are continually improving patient safety across health and care settings.
In 2022/23:
- Our evaluation of PERIPrem as part of the Maternity and Neonatal SIP found 26% more mothers and babies born prematurely in the South West had received the care interventions they were eligible for, compared to before PERIPrem started.
- 4 mental health trusts are engaged in using a Quality Improvement approach to reduce restrictive practice under the Mental Health SIP.
- 1,200 staff in over 245 care homes across the South West were trained in RESTORE2 under the Managing Deterioration SIP.
- We evidenced a relationship between opioid prescribing and deprivation in Plymouth as part of our Medicines Safety SIP, helping to inform the local approach to prescribing.
- Our share and learn events as part of the System Safety SIP have supported the implementation of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework across health and care settings.
In 2021-22, as part of the Adoption and Spread Safety Improvement Programme, we improved the implementation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Asthma discharge care bundles in the South West by offering bespoke assistance and networking opportunities. Read more.
For more information please contact the South West AHSN Patient Safety Team.