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Active Listening and Engagement for Safer Healthcare: PCC Supports World Patient Safety Day 2025

Patient Safety from the Start

Blog by: PCC Chair Ruth Sutherland, CBE

PCC Chairperson Ruth Sutherland CBE

Today, on World Patient Safety Day, we join a global call to action: to ensure safe care for every newborn and every child. 

Every child deserves the best possible start in life and that starts with safe, compassionate, high-quality care. Sadly, we know that when safety fails, the impact on a child and their family can be life-changing. That’s why this year’s message, “Patient safety from the start” is so important. 

It is PCC’s belief that transforming the Health and Social Care System, and improving the health and wellbeing of the population, can only be achieved through genuine partnership with the public. Our experience is that the majority of people who engage with us are passionate about improving services, and if their lived experience is based on a negative incident or circumstances, they are overwhelmingly focused on using what they have experienced and learnt to ensure others do not experience similar in the future. (Martha’s Rule exemplifies this and highlights the benefits of working in partnership with patients and families.)

Patient stories are a vital bridge between lived experience and organisational learning. When staff and leaders actively listen and respond with openness and candour, care becomes not only more compassionate and effective but also significantly safer. We must also be actively aware of the impact inequality and exclusion can have on people’s ability to have their voice heard. Different cohorts of people can face different patient safety challenges.

This ethos of actively listening to and engaging with the public for improved safety is embedded in PCC’s work - recently we held a joint conference with the Professional Standards Authority ‘Professionals and the Public: In Partnership for Patient Safety’ exploring how engaging with and involving the public can assist in making care better for all. 

Our vision is for a health and social care service that is actively shaped by the needs and experiences of the public. On this World Patient Safety Day, we call on health and social care providers, leaders, and policymakers across Northern Ireland to work in partnership with the public, to put safety first in everything we do.

 

End of Blog

 

The Patient and Client Council (PCC) is an independent and influential voice that seeks to connect people to Health and Social Care services so they can effectively influence these services.

If you have a concern or issue about health or social care, or would like to get involved to make your voice heard, the PCC would like to hear from you.

To find out more about the work of the PCC and to learn more about how you can get involved, please visit www.pcc-ni.net or Freephone 0800 917 0222.



Tags: Blog PCC NEWS By PCC at 09/17/2025

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