Creation of new Patient Safety Commissioner role for England
12 January 2022
The Government has recently advertised the role of the first Patient Safety Commissioner (PSC) for England. The core role of the Commissioner will be to promote the safety of patients in the context of the use of medicines and medical devices and to promote the importance of the views of patients and other members of the public in relation to the safety of medicines and medical devices.
The first Patient Safety Commissioner will play a central part in establishing the role and key activities will be to:
- Provide strong leadership, and challenge to the healthcare system through their core functions to: promote the safety of patients, and to promote the importance of the views of patients and other members of the public in relation to the safety of medicines and medical devices.
- Provide direction in establishing the Commissioner role through preparing and publishing a set of principles, following public consultation, to govern the way in which the Commissioner will carry out their core duties
- Communicate the role of the Commissioner to patients and members of the public to raise public awareness of the role, and engagement with it.
- Call the healthcare system to account by actively working in partnership with other organisations when this would deliver the most effective results, including sharing and requesting information from relevant persons. This includes prioritisation of work to avoid duplication in the system.
- Work with the healthcare system where there are areas of concern related to the use of medicines and devices on outcomes required for change and the monitoring of these.
The Patient Safety Commissioner will not act in relation to individual cases, although they may use the lessons of an individual case to inform their work.
