The Bill establishes a new office of Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland.

The Patient Safety Commissioner will:

• support system-wide improvement in the safety of health care
• promote the importance of the views of patients and members of the public in relation to the safety of health care.

The Commissioner will have various functions, including the power to investigate health care safety issues. During an investigation, the Commissioner can require health care providers or individuals to provide relevant information.

The Commissioner must publish reports on health care safety issues and make recommendations as to how these issues can be addressed. The Commissioner can require a health care provider or an individual to respond to any recommendations.

You can read more about what this Bill does in the Explanatory Notes (184KB, pdf) posted 06 October 2022

Why the Bill was created

The Scottish Government has introduced the Bill in response to recommendations made by the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review (“the Cumberlege Review”).

The Cumberlege Review was launched by the UK Government. It was created in response to a number of cases where patients’ concerns about the safety of their medical treatment had not been listened to, resulting in harm.

The Bill aims to create a Patient Safety Commissioner who would:

• improve patient safety by promoting the views of patients in relation to health care safety
• develop a system-wide view of health care in Scotland and use it to identify wider safety issues
• promote better coordination of responses to patient safety concerns across Scotland

You can read more about why this Bill has been created in the Policy Memorandum (238KB, pdf) posted 06 October 2022