At the beginning of June, the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee formally confirmed appointment of the first Chief Investigator of the newly formed Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB).
Keith Conradi – a qualified airline pilot and Chief Inspector of Air Accidents for the past 6 years – has already started work to pull together his team before the HSIB becomes operational in April 2017. Although no operational details are yet available, Mr Conradi told the Select Committee that he imagines that the HSIB will initially have around 25 staff comprising specialist investigators, human factors analysts and support staff, operating with a budget of around £3m each year.
Mr Conradi has already signalled that a key priority for the HSIB will be to support improvement in the quality of local investigations, which in part will be done by establishing clear principles for practice at a national level.
The HSIB was established following acceptance by Rt. Hon. Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State for Health of the report from the HSIB Expert Advisory Group in May.
Whilst the establishment of the HSIB has been broadly welcomed, concern has been expressed about Jeremy Hunt’s refusal to give the HSIB full independence; with critics insisting that being part of NHS Improvement will compromise its authority and credibility from the outset.
Martin Bromiley, Chair of the Clinical Human Factors Group and a long time campaigner for the establishment of the HSIB said ”This is very important step in establishing proper safety investigations in healthcare. It really is time to start understanding 'why' in a more systematic way”.
At a regional level, we have been developing several projects aimed at improving the quality of response after healthcare harm. We’ve been testing and adapting the Human Factors Classification and Analysis System (HFACS) to support better serious incident investigation in mental health services (see my
report on Human Factors here
) and exploring practical ways to support staff involved in serious incidents, using the best available evidence to shape design the approach.During 2016-17 we will be spreading and scaling up these approaches regionally but also in collaboration with colleagues nationally through a range of patient safety and innovation networks.
Contact us for details.
Prof. Murray Anderson-Wallace