Patient Safety Commissioner: consultation analysis

Chapter 3: Responses on the Patient Safety Commissioner role

The recommendations in 'First Do No Harm' focus specifically

on medicines and medical devices, with recommendation 2 stating that 'the

Commissioner would champion the value of listening to patients and promoting

users' perspectives in seeking improvements to patient safety around the use of

medicines and medical devices'.

There were 2 questions in the consultation document which related to the scope of the PSC role in Scotland, and whether this should expand beyond medicines and medical devices.

This analysis follows the layout of the consultation document.

Question 1: Do you agree that the Patient Safety Commissioner role should first focus on medicines and medical devices, as set out in the Cumberlege Review?

Most respondents who answered the question (57%) agreed with the proposal, with the main reason being that this is what the Cumberlege review recommended, although other reasons were also given, such as that a narrower scope initially would provide time and opportunity to learn.

For those who answered no (37%) there were a variety of reasons, including that patient safety is broad and cannot be broken up into parts and also that this approach would exclude those individuals who suffer from other conditions.

For both individuals and organisations, more agreed than disagreed.

The organisations who agreed were made up of a mixture of NHS bodies and patient organisations, whereas those who disagreed were almost all those who represented patients.

Question 2: If the role were to expand in the future, which specific aspects of patient safety do you feel the Patient Safety Commissioner should focus on?

This was a free text question and 81 respondents answered . The organisations that responded were again a mixture of NHS bodies and other organisations. All respondents' comments were wide ranging and highlighted communication; policies, processes and systems such as adverse event reviews; learning; and accountability. Some respondents also mentioned specific topics, such as ensuring the safety of healthcare products, or specific conditions such as mesh. Other respondents felt that the PSC should focus on patient safety in general terms or that the PSC once established should determine their own priorities.