On the 23 November, the NIHR Imperial Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (PSTRC) together with NHS Improvement co-hosted the Fifth Annual NIHR Imperial PSTRC Symposium at the Royal Academy of Engineering. The exciting programme included keynote speaker Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health.
There was a clear theme throughout the day of patients, carers and the public being equal partners with researchers, healthcare professionals and policy-makers (who were all represented in the audience). Jono Broad, Patient Leader (Q Community), did a truly inspiring talk about how care should be patient-centred and good leadership, culture, quality improvement, human factors and technological advancements are all essential elements to improve patient safety.
The panel on co-creation in research, service improvement and policy included Patient Experience Lead at NHS England, the Improvement Lead at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and patient and carer representatives: Sandra Jayacodi and Charity Gondwe, who are part of the PSTRC Research Partners Group. They discussed how communication was also a crucial aspect of safety and that going out to communities and through trust community leaders will help to encourage new people to be involved in research. Visit our website for more information about how to be involved in patient safety research.
Read our Storify of the event on Twitter.