Humanity = safety

People power seemed to be top of the agenda at the HSJ Patient Safety Congress held in Manchester last month.

Whether the focus was on empowering staff through better-integrated technology, changing our culture to involve people and patients more effectively in our work, or simply trying to find the time people need to do their job safely and effectively, it was heartening to see so much focus on the people and relationships who are really at the heart of our NHS.

Mary Dixon-Woods, talking in the context of recent patient safety incidents, such as the Maternity and neonatal services in East Kent: Reading the signals report, summed up the feeling of the conference well when she said that “people in the health and social care system flag risks, not regulations”. The NHS is ultimately built on people, not processes.

It was also clear that there are lots of people in the system not being treated well enough. Racial and and gender bias were frequent topics of conversation, reflecting the fact that both are still heavily experienced in clinical workspaces in the UK. According to a new report (June 2022) from the British Medical Association, 76 per cent of respondents experienced racism at work, and whilst 80 per cent of the workforce in the NHS are female, only 20 per cent of those in the most senior roles are women.

What can we do about this? Creating fair processes for recruitment and review, challenging attitudes and discriminating actions, correctly recording protected characteristics and ensuring that we invest in staff training and development are just some of the ways we can tackle issues early and locally.

If the Congress reminded us of one thing, it is that humanity is what we must hold dearest

More positively, delegates also heard about evolving approaches to involving patients, carers and communities in patient safety. Patient representatives spoke passionately about the need for the NHS to move towards a pragmatic approach to involvement, and how it should be inclusive, iterative, and respectful.

We need to take time and listen to patients, service users, and carers stories, which will ultimately make our work more meaningful. Our work at the Health Innovation Network to involve people and communities in changing the health and care landscape is just getting underway; perhaps we will have our own lessons to share in at a future Congress.

Other important talks covered the latest innovative technology in patient safety. A clear theme was interoperability; data being passed between systems to ensure quality and safety outcomes could be measured, using standardised techniques that highlight the impact on patients rather than system-driven metrics. To that end, NHS England have produced a digital approach to sustaining safety across the patient pathway.

Many of these themes were brought together by a standout talk on community care and self-management from an NHSE manager based in the South West. He spoke about empowering patients to self-manage at home whilst changing his own IV tubing on stage. This highly practical demonstration showed the true power of investing in people; listening to people about how they want to care for themselves, finding the right technology for the patient, and supporting staff to confidently deliver care in new, effective ways. With such an emphasis placed on community care in the NHS Long Term Plan, there is definitely appetite for change in this space and the increased use of tools such as remote monitoring could be a real catalyst for empowering patients and staff alike.

With the NHS and social care systems gathering themselves for another tough winter, undoubtedly talk will turn to targets, costs and statistics. These are of course useful things to consider when we discuss quality improvement or patient safety – but if the Congress reminded us of one thing, it is that humanity is what we must hold dearest.