The Health and Social Care Select Committee is holding an Inquiry into Delivering Core NHS and Care Services during the Pandemic and Beyond. Its stated aim is to ‘give focus to these upcoming strategic challenges, and give those working in the NHS and care sectors an opportunity to set out what help they will need from Government in meeting them'.[1]
Patient Safety Learning has made a submission to this Inquiry which you can read in full.
Our submission to the Inquiry considers the impact of the pandemic of non Covid-19 care and patient safety, and the challenges in balancing Covid-19 with ‘ordinary’ health and social care. It also looks at the long-term patient safety challenges presented by the impact of the pandemic on non Covid-19 care and treatment, and the opportunities to improve health and social care as services normalise.
In our conclusion, we call for the Health and Social Care Select Committee to recommend to the Government that the redesign of health and social care has patient and staff safety at its core with:
- Patient safety at the heart of improved care delivery models, with explicit safety strategies and goals for leadership, shared learning and culture.
- Innovation for safer care shared and implemented widely.
- Transitioning to new ways of working and a ‘safe restart’ to be designed with patient and staff safety at its core and publicly reported.
- Patient engagement and communication to be prioritised, providing information and assurance to patients and families as to the safety of their care and how their concerns can be addressed.
[1] UK Parliament, Delivering Core NHS and Care Services during the Pandemic and Beyond, Last Accessed 7 May 2020. https://committees.parliament.uk/work/277/delivering-core-nhs-and-care-services-during-the-pandemic-and-beyond/
