Reporting and investigating accidents

This article outlines the responsibilities of you as the healthcare service provider/occupier and NHSPS as the building owner and/or facilities management services provider.

How to report an accident

If an accident occurs to a member of your staff, a patient, a visitor or your contractor whilst on site, please report it via your Incident Reporting System.

If you think it has been caused by an issue that NHSPS is responsible for, please let your local NHSPS contact know as soon as possible and they will also record it on our NHSPS Incident Reporting System.

How to investigate accidents

Once an accident has been reported, it’s really important that it is investigated to identify:

• what went wrong and why
• how to support the individual throughout and after the incident
• what can be done to prevent the same thing from happening again.

Investigating accidents to a member of your staff

If one of your employees is involved in an accident, as the employer, it is your responsibility to investigate and if applicable, report under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR).

If you think the accident has been caused by an issue that NHSPS is responsible for, let your NHSPS contact know as soon as possible. We will support your investigation, looking at the specifics related to NHSPS activities and will share the findings with you.

Investigating accidents to your patients or other visitors (linked to the provision of your service)

If the accident is to a patient or other visitor to your property, as the provider of the services at the premises, it is your responsibility to investigate. You will need to consider whether the accident is related to the provision or result of treatment, the natural vulnerability of the individual or another issue. Again, if applicable, the responsibility to report under RIDDOR will fall to you.

If you think the accident has been caused by an issue that NHSPS is responsible for, please let your NHSPS contact know as soon as possible. This could be in connection with the services we provide such as cleaning or the condition of an area of the building we are responsible for. Again, we will support your investigation looking at the specifics related to NHSPS activities and share the findings with you.

Investigating accidents to NHSPS colleagues

If the accident is to an NHSPS colleague, as the employer, it is our responsibility to investigate the accident and, if applicable, report under RIDDOR.

If we think the accident has been caused by an issue that you are responsible for, we will discuss this with you and ask that you support our investigation by looking into the specific areas related to accident and then share your findings with us. This enables us to be confident that action is being taken to prevent future similar incidents. An example of this would be a needlestick injury to an NHSPS employee caused by the incorrect disposal of the device by clinical staff.

The best way to let us know of any concerns, including damage to buildings or associated areas that could cause an accident is by reporting them to our Customer Service Centre.

Call: 0808 196 2045
Email: customer.service@property.nhs.uk
Connect: connect. property.nhs.uk

By doing this, NHSPS can act swiftly to prevent accidents happening in the first place.