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Patient Safety – supporting NHS organisations to improve patient safety and quality of care

Improving patient safety requires expertise, structured support and the space to learn. UCLPartners provides all three.

Patient safety is one of the most important and complex challenges facing the NHS.

Frontline clinicians and patient safety leads are often closest to the problems that need solving, but face significant barriers to implementing change: limited time, stretched capacity and the difficulty of securing organisational buy-in. UCLPartners works with NHS trusts and health and care providers to adopt patient safety innovations and embed quality improvements that genuinely last.

Who this is for

NHS funded health and social care providers and commissioners 
within north, central and east London, including NHS trusts, primary care providers and local authority social care.

The service is particularly relevant to frontline clinicians, patient safety leads, midwives, pharmacists and nursing staff responsible for delivering care improvements, as well as the organisational leads who support them.

How it Works

UCLPartners is commissioned by NHS England to deliver patient safety support to health and care providers within the area. Rather than waiting for organisations to come to us, we proactively engage with trusts and providers to offer support for nationally prioritised patient safety improvement areas. These are:

01

Managing Deteriorating Patients

Implementation of Martha’s rule

02

Maternity and Neonatal

Patient Safety Improvement programme

03

Medicines Safety

Reducing harm from psychotropics used for behaviour that challenges in people with Learning Disability

04

Systems Safety

implementation of PSIRF

Our approach draws on proven quality improvement methodology and includes:

01

Shared learning across organisations

Networking and shared learning opportunities across organisations, so teams can learn from what is working elsewhere.

02

Support for quality improvement

Direct support to trusts in quality improvement and patient safety methodology.

03

Building workforce capability

Capacity and capability building within the clinical workforce, helping teams develop the skills and confidence to lead improvements themselves.

Working with UCLPartners has been invaluable in supporting our local efforts to implement Martha’s Rule. Their ability to connect NHS teams has accelerated progress, resolved challenges, and spread best practices.

June 2025
Lisa Carrie, Critical Care Outreach Team Nurse and
Martha’s Rule Implementation Lead, The Whittington Hospital

Key benefits

Improved patient
safety outcomes

delivered through evidence-based innovations and quality improvement approaches.

Shared learning across organisations

reducing duplication and accelerating the spread of what works.

Practical support that builds lasting capability

within clinical teams, rather than creating dependency on external resource.

Toolkits and resources

Introduction to Quality Improvement

Quality improvement (QI) is about improving patient (and population) outcomes, system performance and professional development. Learn more about QI and how you can apply it to your projects.

Access Introduction to QI
Culture and leadership training

This training will support staff who work in neonatal and maternity units to develop skills, learn concepts, and reflect on how to build a healthy workplace culture.

Culture and leadership training

Is this right for you?

Support is delivered through programme activities rather than direct funding, so clinical professionals need to have time available to engage with the work.

Organisational buy-in is also important; the most successful outcomes come where leadership actively supports frontline teams to participate. This service is commissioned by NHS England. If you would like to learn more or get involved, 
please contact the team.

Valentina Karas

Director of Implementation

valentina.karas@uclpartners.com

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touch
with Valentina Karas

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Futures thinking and forecasting for healthcare

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