Patient safety committee

The RCP's Patient Safety Committee (PSC) meets three times a year and comprises representatives from the RCP as well as from specialist societies and other royal colleges.

Our purpose

The purpose of the Patient Safety Committee is to improve the safety of patients receiving care from our fellows, members and the multidisciplinary teams within which they work in all four countries of the UK and internationally.

We will do this by:

1. having oversight of the RCP patient safety work programme and supporting its full delivery
2. proactively promoting patient safety in medicine so that it remains a high policy priority throughout the NHS and integral to the clinical practice of our fellows and members and the multidisciplinary teams within which they work
3. becoming a source of patient safety expertise for fellows and members; supporting physicians who are leading patient safety work, involved in safety initiatives or undertaking patient safety research; promoting patient safety research to fellows, members and the medical community at large
4. vigorously promoting the concept of an open, transparent, supportive culture in healthcare where safety is enhanced – through continuous learning and transparency
5. working to ensure that the identification and reporting of clinical incidents, including near misses, is embedded in the culture of learning rather than blame
6. working to improve the reporting of adverse incidents to regulatory authorities and to encourage fellows, members and patients to participate in reporting systems
7. ensuring that patient safety is higher up on the agenda for undergraduate and postgraduate education, training and continuing professional development (CPD)
8. providing formal RCP patient safety advice for policy makers, NHS organisations throughout the UK, commissioners, RCP tutors and regional advisers, other professional bodies, patients and the public, understanding patient safety within the context of where the work is based
9. contributing to relevant policy consultations and ensuring that patient safety is embedded in every consultation document that is generated
10. providing endorsement, where appropriate, to individual initiatives and best practice and where appropriate working with partner organisations on specific patient safety projects
11. actively seeking collaboration with other organisations around patient safety activities where there are opportunities to do so
12. linking with other work that is being carried out across the RCP, eg health informatics and general (internal) medicine curriculum.