In 2019 the NHS published the Patient Safety Strategy, which highlighted the need for patients to be involved with the surveillance and management of patient safety framework for involving patients in patient safety.
Medway NHS Foundation Trust and Medway Community Healthcare are looking to appoint two members of the public to be Patient Safety Partners who will be highly involved in the organisations’ safety culture.
The Patient Safety Partners will attend committees and meetings across the two trusts, and will be involved in work to manage patient safety, and patient safety training for staff members.
The role
The Patient Safety Partners will be actively involved in the design of safer healthcare at all levels of the organisations. Patient Safety Partners will work to ensure that the trusts prioritise the safety requirements of patients, maximise the things that go right and minimise the things that go wrong.
As Patient Safety Partners, you will work closely with both trusts’ Quality Teams, by:
- Attending Committee meetings, groups and other strategic patient safety related meetings
- Supporting the safety training of staff
- Helping develop patient safety information resources
- Being part of project teams working to improve safe care and systems
- Helping the system to understand what they do well and how they can do more from a safety perspective from a patient’s point of view
- Supporting the safety team when reviewing incidents and supporting learning from incidents.
Patient Safety Partners will help the trusts to listen to and work with local residents, carers, and families, to improve patient safety across Kent and Medway.
They actively work with staff to design safer healthcare throughout our area, to gather insights from local people and communities and challenge the Trust to ensure they learn and change how they work to improve the health and wellbeing of our local people.
Patient Safety Partners are not employees of either of the trusts and are encouraged to claim involvement payments for their time and out-of-pocket expenses when the trusts confirm that the task profile meets the role definition Patient Safety Partners Involvement Policy.
How to apply
If you’re interested in taking on this role, we’d love to hear from you!
Please read the role description and person specification first and then complete the expression of interest form.
If you require any support with your application, please contact us:
By email: medwayft.patientsafetyteam@nhs.net
By post to: Jessica Campbell, Patient Safety Specialist
Level 1 Green Zone, Governance office,
Medway Maritime Hospital
Windmill Road
Gillingham
ME7 5NY
Frequently Asked Questions
- Promoting openness and transparency
- Supporting us to consider how processes appear and feel to patients
- Helping us know what is important to our patients
- Helping us identify risk by hearing what feels unsafe to patients
- Supporting the prioritisation of risks that need to be addressed and subsequent improvement programmes
- Supporting us in developing an action plan following investigations, particularly so that actions address the needs of patients
- Helping us produce related patient information that patients understand and can access.
Some examples of the responsibilities and tasks that PSPs will have are as follows:
- You will be involved in informing related policy, guidance and literature including patient information.
- You will have an opportunity to engage with our staff to support awareness and education sessions about the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF).
- As we evolve, we may ask you to participate in the investigation of patient safety events, assist in the implementation of patient safety improvement projects and develop patient safety resources.
- Work with committees to consider how to improve safety.
We are committed to improving safety and continuous improvement so this role will evolve over time. You will play a key part in how the role develops and any changes will be made in consultation and agreement with you.
We will support you in your role and ensure you are provided with the tools and advice you need.
You will be managed by, and work alongside the Heads of Patient Safety for the trusts. They will be able to explain the expectations of the role and provide support required.
You will have regular scheduled reviews with your manager and regular one-to-one sessions with the Head of Patient Safety.
You will be provided with Trust induction training which you will have to complete in order to carry out this role. On completion of this you will receive a local induction and provided with ongoing additional training relevant to the role.
There is an opportunity to attend related conferences, webinars, and complete online training.
Patient Safety Partners will be required to demonstrate the trusts’ values and abide by Trust Policies including for example, Confidentiality, Equality, Safeguarding, Infection Prevention and Control and Health and Safety. The Trust values and policy details are included in the Trust induction training.
Whilst you are not under any contractual agreement within this role, we are looking for someone who can commit to two years in this role with a time commitment of a minimum of four hours per month.
As a PSP you will be asked to sign an agreement on completion of your Trust induction training to confirm you understand the role and that you understand and will abide by the Trust policies and values. Once training is completed and the agreement is signed you will be able to commence in your role.
NHS Checks: this role requires you to complete mandatory NHS checks which includes, a standard disclosure and barring service, (DBS) check which we will provide for you free of charge, a right to work and verification of identity check, reference checks and an occupational health check which is necessary to ensure we will not put you at any risk in this role.
There is no requirement for previous experience as this is a new and unique role. However, we are seeking people who have a level of understanding of safety in the NHS, through personal or professional experiences.
We are seeking people with a genuine commitment to support our patient safety improvement, are able to read and interpret complex information, are able to demonstrate objectivity and communicate openly and honestly on all aspects of patient safety and sensitive to the needs of others in response to safety incidents, as we work towards a restorative approach.
We want to ensure we represent the diversity in our community and encourage applications from everyone, we recognise the importance of the inclusion of diverse experiences that will help us to have greater insight, learn and accomplish more.
