Six members of the public have now been recruited as Patient Safety Partners – two each for Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare, Kingston Hospital and Your Healthcare.
All three organisations have welcomed their new Patient Safety Partners to their committees with a patient safety, risk and quality remit, after they finished both local and national training. Each partner will take up their role for a minimum of two years and be actively involved in the design of safer healthcare at all levels across the organisation they work with, representing the voice of the individual.
Despite only being in the early stages of their roles, the partners have been actively involved in discussions around patient safety and contributed to the final development of some relevant guidelines as well as highlighting areas that need to be worked on to be fully inclusive, for example how things are worded and the use of acronyms.
We are already seeing the benefit of having these dedicated volunteers working with us”
Nic Kane, Chief Nurse, Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust
Nic Kane, Chief Nurse at Kingston Hospital and Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “This is an important role which will amplify the voice of patients and help to make local care safer and more responsive to the different needs of local communities.
“Despite this project being relatively new, we are already seeing the benefit of having these dedicated volunteers working with us and I look forward to seeing the long-lasting improvements they will help us make going forward.”
I thought making services better for all users of the hospital was a good initiative, so I was keen to get involved.“
Ruth, Patient Safety Partner
At the moment, there are no more of these roles available, but the success of the Patient Safety Partners has ignited interest in involving patients and the public in other governance and scrutiny around the various settings.
Get involved
To register an interest in becoming a Patient Safety Partner in a different department or discipline, email the volunteering team.
