Derek and Amy joined us in October 2022 and represent the regions’ commitment to placing an ‘involvement’ lens to implementation of the NHS patient safety strategy and to ensure patients, staff and partners have the opportunity to use their skills to improve patient safety for all Londoners.

Derek and Amy are trailblazing these new roles for the NHS. With continued support and commitment from our senior leadership team in ensuring our patient safety partners are respected and valued, they are empowered to speak up as critical friends to our safety governance functions within the London region.

Derek and Amy bring different backgrounds, skills and experience to the role, which enhances the opportunities to involve them in a variety of patient safety work areas.

The initial development of the patient safety partner roles has led them to be involved in regional meetings looking at patient safety leadership across London, and how internally within the region we manage clinical risk.

We start by putting our questions to Amy:

Amy, can you please describe your background?

I have experienced NHS healthcare through a number of different lenses; as a qualified nurse, a molecular genetics researcher, a carer and patient advocate, and also as a patient with lived experience of respiratory disease since 1986 requiring specialist NHS care. I have experienced firsthand where patient care and patient safety can become compromised.

I worked for Macmillan Cancer Support and the Chinese National Healthy Living Centre as a Chinese cancer information officer and led on a library health information project and delivered outreach health talks to Chinese communities.

What interested you in the patient safety partner role? 

My late father sadly died of hospital acquired pressure sores and hence I have seen the devastating impacts on patient safety of less than optimal patient care.

The patient safety partner role seemed to provide an opportunity to share a voice, to inspire and to work alongside those who can make changes happen and lead to improvements in patient care in all different healthcare settings.

I also wanted to understand the problems better and find ways to improve these issues and hoped I might help in developing best practice and guidance.  

How do you think you are elevating the voice of patients? 

In being accepted as an equal member of the London Clinical Risk Committee and of the Patient Safety operational team, I have started to learn how clinical risks and patient safety issues are monitored and managed. Through these forums I can voice my queries and concerns about patient safety, which I hope reflects the voices of patients, carers, family and staff across London.

I have started to gain a better understanding of what influences patient safety and many of these factors I hadn’t noticed when I was in nursing, and which could help shape improvement interventions in the future.

I am treated as an expert within the regional Patient Safety team. My feedback and suggestions on how to improve and consolidate the development process are clearly valued and heard.

How do you think the role is helping you to make a difference?

I will have an opportunity to use my co-production skills to good effect as part of the role. An example of this is my involvement in developing a targeted and useable resource for dentists, optometrists and pharmacists on the Learn from Patient Safety Events platform, the NHS’s new national system for recording patient safety events. The aim of this is to provide sound information for users which will increase the recording of patient safety events, which will support the NHS to learn and improve.

Derek and I are also working on a patient safety partner local information pack for London, which aims to provide the all the information, guidance, and points of reference in one place that any future patient safety partners working with the NHS England London region would require.

And now moving onto Derek, with the same questions:

Derek, can you please describe your background?

I am a qualified accountant and worked for the NHS for 38 years until my retirement in 2019. For the last 25 years of my career, I was managing director of a London based internal audit and consultancy consortium hosted by a London NHS trust, which in addition to internal audit and consultancy services also provided information governance, data quality, counter fraud and security management services.

And what was it that interested you in the patient safety partner role? 

I have gained a lot of experience as a patient advocate for individuals undergoing major surgery or receiving long-term psychiatric care, which has given me a wider understanding of patient safety, and how clinicians engage with patients.

Patient safety is a very important aspect of clinical governance, and I am very interested in helping NHS England to continue to improve patient safety and believe that my skills and experience will help me to do just that.

How do you think you are elevating the voice of patients?

I am a member of the region’s Patient Safety Leadership Forum that is designed to help the NHS in London implement the NHS patient safety strategy. I have been able to provide advice and constructive observations to help make the implementation a success and reflect public and patient needs.

I am also a member of the region’s Clinical Risk Committee. This affords me the opportunity to understand the principal risks faced in London and provide constructive challenge and observations to the committee and officers in attendance, particularly regarding patient safety matters from a public/patient perspective. 

How do you think the role is helping you to make a difference?

As this new role has started to take shape, I have begun to provide input to the London-wide implementation of the NHS patient safety strategy and the management of key clinical risks present across London. This is a challenging agenda for everyone, and I relish the opportunity to further refine my role and contribute effectively to improving patient safety across London.

Call to action: 

If you are interested in finding out more about the patient safety partners role, please visit our website and/or contact the London Patient Safety team england.londonpatientsafety@nhs.net