It’s been one year since the Patient Safety Steering Group (PSSG) was established to support delivery of the College’s Patient Safety and Quality Strategy, and it’s already making strong progress.

What we’ve achieved so far

Over the past year, the PSSG has moved from set-up to action, building solid foundations and starting delivery on key priorities. Highlights include:

• Establishing the group’s structure, membership and four-nations representation
• Gathering insights through a patient safety survey with Specialty Advisory Committees
• Identifying key cross-cutting safety themes, particularly around digital systems, IT and result communication
• Beginning development of practical guidance on safe staffing, point-of-care testing, and accreditation and result communication
• Starting to review national patient safety intelligence to better understand recurring risks.

This work is helping ensure that patient safety issues across pathology are visible, understood and acted on at the right level.

Looking ahead

The focus now is on turning momentum into meaningful outputs for members. Over the coming year, the PSSG plan to:

• Finalise and publish guidance on safe staffing, point-of-care testing and result communication
• Use survey findings to shape future priorities
• Strengthen how patient safety intelligence is gathered and shared
• Expand work on digital, IT and AI safety
• Support learning from recurring pathology incidents

Why it matters

Many of the risks faced by members arise at the interfaces between teams, systems and services. By bringing these together, the PSSG is helping the College take a more joined-up, practical approach to improving patient safety across pathology.