Researchers at the University of Nottingham have been awarded a share of £25 million by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to help improve patient safety and the overall safety of health and care services across England.
The Patient Safety Research Collaboration (PSRC) will run from 2023-2028. It will be led by researchers from the University of Manchester, alongside teams from the University of Nottingham and the University of Leicester.
The collaborations will address strategic patient safety challenges within the health and care system, focusing on seven strategic areas set out by NHS England. These areas cover issues such as clinical risk scores, which enable professionals to identify people who may benefit from preventative interventions and improving the culture and practice in organisations to promote patient safety.
Patient safety is about maximising the things that go right and minimising the things that go wrong for people receiving healthcare. We are aligning our funding with the strategic priorities from NHS England and ensuring that we are addressing the issues that really matter to patients.
Professor Chappell continues: "This new round of funding gives the best researchers the opportunity to assess innovations and approaches that could shift this balance for the better."
The research teams will develop and test innovations, approaches and interventions that could improve patient safety and the safety of health and care services. The funding will also enable partnerships to be built between health and care organisations, universities, local authorities, and patients and the public.
The collaborations are an evolution of the Patient Safety Translational Research Centres (PSTRCs), which were first funded by the NIHR a decade ago.
The Greater Manchester PSRC will focus on the following themes:
- Improving Medication Safety
- Enhancing Cultures of Safety
- Developing Safer Health and Care Systems
- Preventing Suicide and Self-harm
The new 'Improving Medication Safety' theme will be led by Tony Avery, Professor of Primary Health Care at the University of Nottingham and Professor Darren Ashcroft, Director of the Greater Manchester Patient Safety Research Collaboration.
Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam adds: "Professor Tony Avery aims to build on the success of his previous study at the Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Researcher Centre where he and his team developed a set of safety indicators to identify patients at risk of harm from prescribing errors. I'm looking forward to seeing the work that's developed and the difference it makes to patient safety across health and social care."
Professor Darren Ashcroft said: "We are delighted to have secured funding to continue patient safety research as one of the new Patient Safety Research Collaborations. The work we've delivered over the last 10 years at the Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre has impacted the safety of care delivered by the NHS, as our innovations have been adopted by health and social care and rolled out first regionally, then nationally. The new collaboration will allow our researchers to build on this success across four key themes of patient safety, and we're excited to get this work underway."
The 'Enhancing Cultures of Safety' theme, will be led by Professors Natalie Armstrong and Carolyn Tarrant at the University of Leicester.
The 'Developing Safer Health and Care Systems' theme will be led by Professor Caroline Sanders and Dr Tom Blakeman at the University of Manchester and aims to work with patients, carers and key stakeholders to improve how multiple health and care providers work together to deliver care safely.
The second theme to be based at The University of Manchester is 'Preventing Suicide and Self-harm'. Professors Nav Kapur and Roger Webb will lead this work, which will identify, refine and subsequently evaluate service innovations that have enhanced patient safety in specialist mental health services, self-harm services across general hospitals and primary care.
The Greater Manchester PSRC will be hosted by Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust. Professor Phil Kalra, Director of Research & Innovation, said: "Research that focuses on patient safety across health and social care is vital. We have been impressed with the achievements of the Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre and are pleased to be hosting the new Patient Safety Research Collaboration from 2023. All four of the collaboration's new themes are relevant to the NCA and we are looking forward to working together to improve patient safety."
