Health Foundation to lead initiative with NHS England to improve patient safety and quality across the UK

The Health Foundation has today (Thursday 4 December 2014) announced plans to work with NHS England to boost the expertise available in the NHS to improve the quality of patient care throughout the UK.

Launching in early 2015, the initiative will recruit and connect people from across health care with safety and quality improvement expertise to help overcome a key challenge: how to spread improvement throughout the health care system, with the longer-term goal of encouraging safer care for patients.   

The Health Foundation’s commitment to the ‘5000 Safety Fellows’ initiative comes a year on from Hard Truths, the government’s response to the Francis inquiry and Don Berwick’s Review of patient safety in the NHS. The initiative reflects one of the recommendations made in the Berwick review and taken forward in Hard Truths.

Together the Health Foundation and NHS England have committed nearly £2m of initial seed funding to launch the initiative. It is anticipated that we will recruit 5000 participants by 2020.

The Health Foundation’s involvement will extend the initiative’s reach throughout the UK.

Dr Jennifer Dixon, Chief Executive of the Health Foundation, will announce the plans at the Health Foundation’s ‘Ideas for Change’ patient safety conference later today (Thursday 4 December 2014).

Dr Dixon comments: 'This initiative will allow us to identify a critical mass of people leading improvement from across the UK and to help accelerate the pace of change within the NHS. There’s a lot of talent and drive in the NHS, but this initiative will help boost skills specifically in quality improvement across the country as is needed to help transform health care.'

Dr Mike Durkin, National Director of Patient Safety at NHS England, comments: 'The patient safety fellows will be empowered to learn and share their expertise across five levels: as individuals in their day-to-day roles within their own organisations; regionally through their local Patient Safety Collaborative; nationally by supporting specific initiatives; as members of a national movement of safety improvement; and to support other countries across the world. This will not only boost the skills of individual fellows, but also encourage nurturing of talent and sharing of innovation, passion and skills.'

Notes to editors

• To learn more about this initiative please visit the relevant page on our website.
• Further information is available in our FAQ. 

Media contact

Mike Findlay, Media Manager
T: 020 7257 8047
E: mike.findlay@health.org.uk