Wednesday 20 May 2026
| Attendees (in person) |
| Dr Amit Aggarwal (ABPI) |
| Prof Beth Fylan (NIHR / PSRC) |
| George Lawton (GS1 UK) |
| Helen Davenport (NHS England) |
| Prof Henrietta Hughes, Chair (Patient Safety Commissioner for England) |
| Mercy Jeyasingham (MHRA) |
| Morag Punton (The Company Chemists’ Association) |
| Dr Nicola Byrne (National Data Guardian) |
| Peter Ellingworth (ABHI) |
| Rachel Power (Patients Association) |
| Prof Reecha Sofat (University of Liverpool) |
| Prof Tony Avery (NHS England / University of Nottingham) |
| Dr Tony Dysart (PHSO) |
| (PSC staff also in attendance – Secretariat) |
| Attendees (online) |
|
Alex Kafetz (Non-executive director of CQC, Authority member of the HFEA) |
| The Baroness Dame Clare Gerada |
| Karen Titchener (Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland) |
| Kathie Cashell (General Pharmaceutical Council) |
| Patrick Murphy (on behalf of PSA) |
| Dr Peter Barry (NICE) |
| Richard Cattell (NHS England) |
| Sue Tranka (NHS Wales) |
| Thea Stein (Nuffield Trust) |
| Apologies |
| Alan Clamp (PSA) |
| Prof Bola Owolabi (CQC) |
| Prof Habib Naqvi (NHS Race and Health Observatory) |
| Jacob Lant (National Voices) |
| Dr Jeanette Dickson (Academy of Medical Royal Colleges) |
| Dr Mike Durkin |
MEETING NOTE
| 1. | Welcome and round table introductions |
| 1.1 | The Chair, Henrietta Hughes, warmly welcomed everyone to the first meeting of the refreshed Advisory Group for her second term, and thanked both continuing and new members for joining. Apologies had been received from Alan Clamp (Patrick Murphy deputising), Bola Owolabi, Habib Naqi, Jacob Lant, Jeanette Dickson, Mike Durkin. |
| 1.2 | Brief round table and online introductions were made. The Chair reflected on the vast and varied collective expertise reflected in the membership. |
| 2. | Chair’s opening remarks and scene setting |
| 2.1 | Henrietta described her vision for collaborative working in a spirit of learning and sharing within a safe and trusted space. A summary meeting note would be added to the PSC website. |
| 2.2 | Henrietta briefly recapped the role of Patient Safety Commissioner, an independent role first established in 2022 to drive improvement in the safety of medicines and medical devices by ensuring that patient voices are at the heart of the design and delivery of healthcare in England. |
| 2.3 | In September last year PSC published a paper setting out what had been achieved during the first term (PSC Impact), including recommendations and calls to action made and how these had been responded to. |
| 2.4 | Following the Dash Review, the Office of the Patient Safety Commissioner was now hosted by MHRA but continued to be sponsored by DHSC. The Dash Review stated that the wider remit adopted by the PSC should be integrated into DHSC to support improvements to patient safety and patient experience, including managing and learning from complaints. There was a new National Director of Patient Experience being recruited and Henrietta said she would hand over any broader work her office had previously done in this area. |
| 2.5 | Sue Tranka shared the position in Wales saying the centring of patient voice in Wales was critical. (See – Wales Listening to Patients – New Listening to People statutory guidance to improve how NHS Wales responds to concerns – NHS Wales Performance and Improvement ). |
| 2.6 | Henrietta described the current work being undertaken by the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare. Henrietta is the Deputy Chair of the Commission and chairs the Commission’s Health Systems Working Group, which examines the integration, resilience, and performance of health and regulatory systems in relation to the Commission’s priorities. |
| 2.7 | The National Commission was undertaking a substantial research and engagement exercise, including a call for evidence, focus groups, and most recently that morning an ‘Ask me anything’ webinar. Henrietta would keep the Advisory Group updated. There was some discussion on the impact of AI and the need for safe deployment of AI as a medical device, including the impact on general practice with differing views expressed. |
| 2.8 | Sue Tranka referred to the AI commission in Wales and that safeguards and regulation were being looked at with a view that AI should complement the human in the system. Beth Fylan referred to work generating an evidence base around the impact of technology on driving inequality. |
| 2.9 | There was a brief discussion on the hidden safety issues associated with the increasing numbers of routes emerging for the public to buy medicines in different, often unconventional and illicit ways that was cause for concern. Rachel Power reported that the Patients Association had done a piece of work around why/how patients are accessing medicines online (See Understanding patient experiences of buying medicines online | The Patients Association plus Patient experience survey May 2026 ) |
| 3. | Draft Terms of reference |
| 3.1 | Henrietta introduced the draft Terms of reference (ToR). No immediate comments were raised.
Post-meeting note: After the meeting all members were invited by email to provide comments and feedback on the draft ToR by 28 May. |
| 4. | PSC Strategy and priorities |
| 4.1 | Victoria Carbutt (PSC’s Chief of Staff) summarised the previous strategy adopted by the PSC which had focused on three broad themes – alignment of healthcare culture, patients’ voices in their care, patient voice in the delivery of healthcare. Victoria referred to progress made against each work area sitting under those themes, recognising some areas had resulted in notable positive outputs and were complete (e.g. establishing Martha’s Rule policy) whilst work on others is still ongoing. |
| 4.2 | Henrietta added that every element of the strategy had started with patients, and had elevated patient voice be it through the Hughes Report or the Safety Gap report. Henrietta described the policy sprints and co-production process for Martha’s Rule and the international inspiration that helped inform the policy. |
| 4.3 | Nicola Byrne suggested ‘meaningful consent’ might be preferable terminology to ‘informed consent’, as being informed is by itself insufficient for patients to be able to exercise genuine choice e.g. a power dynamic may exist within a healthcare situation that may hinder a patient from withholding their consent to something proposed by a healthcare professional. It was noted that regulators use different language when discussing the topic of consent, and Henrietta referred to the ‘principles of consent’ that were being produced collaboratively by the professional regulators. Henrietta suggested ‘What matters to you’ was the grounding question. |
| 4.4 | Henrietta confirmed that other organisations represented on the Advisory Group but unable to join today’s meeting included the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, CQC, NHS Race and Health Observatory, National Voices and that representation from Northern Ireland was being sought. |
| 4.5 | The Patient Safety Principles which were one of the key deliverables in the first term, were developed following a public consultation process and would continue to inform and guide work going forward. The principles provided a framework for decision making, planning and collaborative working with patients as partners in a just and learning culture and were for everyone working in the healthcare system (see the explanatory text that sits behind each principle and a toolkit on how to use the principles on the PSC website). |
| 4.6 | The Patient Safety Principles formed the foundation of the new draft strategy for the second term with three pillars (medicines, medical devices and patient safety), below which were potential priority areas of focus (draft at this stage) – these were aimed at improving the safety management system around medicines to reduce preventable harm, learning from previous patient experiences to encourage the safe deployment of medical devices, promoting the patient voice and driving equity across the healthcare system. |
| 4.7 | Members split into groups to discuss the draft strategy before briefly reporting back in plenary. Feedback from the short discussions would be reflected upon during the process of refining the draft second term strategy.
Post-meeting note: After the meeting all members were invited by email to provide further comments and feedback by 28 May. |
| 5. | Forward look |
| 5.1 | In the coming weeks the Patient Safety Commissioner annual report for 2025-2026 would be finalised and laid before Parliament before the summer recess. Finalising the draft strategy and work plan for the second terms would also be a priority. |
| 6. | 2026 meeting dates |
| 6.1 | Two further dates for meetings in 2026 had been circulated and calendar invites would follow for Wednesday 2 September and Tuesday 8 December. |
| 7. | AOB |
| 7.1 | Henrietta thanked members for their comments and feedback and for contributing to a very positive first meeting; and asked members to connect on LinkedIn. |
ACTIONS
| Action | Who | |
| (i) | Send any comments on the draft Terms of Reference to
commissioner@patientsafetycommissioner.org.uk by 28 May |
All members |
| (ii) | Send any comments on the draft strategy for the second term
(slides 7 & 8) to commissioner@patientsafetycommissioner.org.uk by 28 May |
All members |
| (iii) | If not already done so please send a short biography and photo to commissioner@patientsafetycommissioner.org.uk for adding to the PSC website. | All members |
| (iv) | Identify if any important gaps in membership and make suggestions | All members |
| (v) | Send calendar invites for Sept and Dec meetings | Secretariat |