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Safety at ELFT

Safety at ELFT

The safety of patients, service users, carers and our staff underpins everything we do. 

We know that people who need care and support need to feel confident that they will get optimum care from us. And trust that all our interventions and processes are safe, and tried and tested. 

Safety Cycle

Impact
Key to this is monitoring the outcomes of the care we give - to be sure it is having the right impact. But also exploring and investigating when things don't go so well, understanding why this was, and learning. It is also important that this learning informs all teams in the Trust - not just the team where the incident or issue occurred. See our PSIRF Patient Information leaflet.

We have a number of ways that we do this and measure the impact of the care we provide. And processes in place for staff to report when some an incident occurs which sets off a train of actions to bring about improvements.

If you have been a patient or service user of ELFT and would like to be involved in work about safety and improvement in the Trust, we'd love to hear from you. See the information below and email us at: elft.safetynetwork@nhs.net.

Our Safety Plan mission is to continuously improve safety for people within services, for ALL our people (staff, patients and carers) and work with our local communities to contribute to safer lives for all, at a whole population level.

You can view our PSIRF Plan and PSIRF Policy on the links provided & can also view these ELFT Safety Plan slides which summarise some of the key points in the plan: ELFT Safety Plan slide presentation. 

Later this year, we will transition to the new NHS England framework for learning from incidents: the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) and also a new incident reporting system (LFPSE) in Autumn 2023.  Watch this space!

Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF)
You can view this 4-minute video which explains PSIRF in simple terms or see more detail on the NHS England website

This is a really important part of our work to continuously improve safety.  We are developing new roles, new ways to involve patients and carers in our safety improvement work, and better ways we can support people affected when a safety incident occurs.  We know service users and carers play a key role in telling us about how safe our services are, so it is important that services have systems in place to enable this dialogue to take place. For example, we have introduced Care Opinion in many of our services and encourage patients, service users and carers to give us feedback on this about how their appointment/treatment has been.
 

When a safety incident happens to someone being cared for by the Trust, it is understandably very upsetting both for the person or patient (the individual) to whom the incident occurred, their family and close relations. Family and close relations may include parents, partners, siblings, children, guardians, carers, and others who have a direct and close relationship with the individual to whom the incident occurred. 

Incidents can be when something goes wrong: an error or accident. It is usually something not planned or expected. It can be a near-miss: when something harmful almost happened but didn't. Or it could be an incident when someone was harmed physically or psychologically, or sadly, when someone dies suddenly and it was not expected.  

The Trust always reviews such incidents because we want to understand what has happened, remedy it if we can, make changes to prevent a similar incident happening somewhere else in the Trust, and to learn from it. See our PSIRF Patient information leaflet here for more information or to print out and read.

When a patient dies, it can be really difficult for the family and we want to support you as much as possible. The section below lists organisations that can support families, carers, patients or anyone affected by safety incidents or losses. 

BSBS - Bedfordshire Suicide Bereavement Service supports people living anywhere in Bedfordshire and Luton of any age who have been bereaved by suicide www.chums.uk.com/bedfordshire-suicide-bereavement

Bereavement by Suicide Support Service for people living in Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes call 0300 330 0648 or email imogen.harrison@mind-blmk.org.uk. www.mind-blmk.org.uk

SOBS - Survivors of bereavement by suicide. Local support groups in Bedford (bedford@uksobs.org) and Milton Keynes (milton.keynes@uksobs.org). Resources for professionals available www.uksobs.org

GAMBLNG WITH LIVES - Support for families who have been bereaved by gambling related suicides. www.gamblingwithlives.org

HELP IS AT HAND BOOKLET -A guide to support you after someone may have died by suicide www.supportaftersuicide.org.uk/resource/help-is-at-hand

There are a number of organisations that can help at these times:

What to do when someone dies (Government website step-by-step advice) 
Marie Curie NHS Confidential Bereavement Support (operated by Hospice UK). Call 0300 303 4434
Sudden
Samaritans Call 116 123 free
Good Grief Trust
Cruse
At a Loss

Winston's Wish charity supports bereaved children, young people, their families and the professionals who support them.
For more information visit www.winstonswish.org.