Imperial College Healthcare Foundation Trust - Information

Imperial College Healthcare Foundation Trust to take on national patient safety role

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A leading London acute trust is to take on responsibility for collecting information on patient safety incidents at NHS trusts when the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) is wound up next year.

The National Reporting and Learning Service (NRLS), the world’s largest source of patient safety information, is to transfer to Imperial College Healthcare Foundation Trust (ICHT) on a temporary basis in April 2012.

The Trust Board has agreed in principle to take on the service for two years while a full procurement for the service is developed, including a competitive tendering process.

The decision to scrap the NPSA was taken following the Government’s review of arm’s-length bodies in 2010.

Subject to the passage of the Health Bill, responsibility for the NRLS, which collects and analyses data on patient safety incidents from trusts across England and Wales, will transfer to the NHS Commissioning Board when the NPSA is abolished next spring.

NPSA Chief Executive, Sarndrah Horsfall, said: “The two year temporary transfer of the NRLS to ICHT is a vital step in strengthening the patient safety culture across the new NHS in England and Wales.

“It is important that NHS organisations continue to submit their patient safety incident reports to the NRLS to support ongoing learning. We welcome the acceptance in principle by ICHT of the temporary transfer and look forward to working closely with them.”