Robust governance and oversight

Health Services Safety Investigations Body

The Health Services Safety Investigation Body (HSSIB) became a fully independent arm’s length body of the Department of Health and Social Care on 1 October 2023. It investigates patient safety concerns across NHS services in England and in independent healthcare settings where national learning can improve care.

In 2025, the IHPN-CQC Patient Safety Conference partnered with HSSIB to help ensure that findings and recommendations from its national investigations are understood and applied in practice, covering issues such as trauma-informed investigations and staff fatigue. Member organisations contributed by sharing how they have implemented HSSIB recommendations locally.

PHIN adverse event data

We now have several years of data published by the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) about adverse events for privately-funded patients treated both by independent providers and NHS private patient units (PPUs).

Information is available from 2020 onwards and we are pleased to note that levels of data completeness have risen considerably over that time. 91% of independent providers are submitting information of a high enough quality for adverse event rates to be calculated and published. This is an increase of 9% over the past year, and 19% over two years. We will continue to work with PHIN and providers to push this figure higher still. The equivalent figure for NHS PPUs is considerably lower (73%), though this represents a welcome increase on the 43% reported last year.