All maternity patient safety incidents must be reported and investigated.
Where a case meets our criteria, our maternity investigation replaces an NHS trust’s internal investigation.
When referring a case to us, NHS trusts must:
- Complete an online referral using our secure information management system, known as HIMS.
- Inform the family about the referral to the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations (MNSI) programme and provide them with information about us.
- Request consent from the family for MNSI to contact them and inform MNSI that the family have provided this consent.
- Identify trust staff involved in the case, provide them with information about us and support them throughout the investigation.
- Collect information about the case and upload it to HIMS.
The details and instructions for the use of HIMS have been given to trusts. We recommend that three members of trust staff are registered to use HIMS.
If you need help with HIMS, please email Enquiries@mnsi.org.uk.
NHS trusts remain responsible for:
- Duty of Candour
- Reporting via STEIS (the Strategic Executive Information System) within 72 hours.
- Reporting to MBRRACE-UK (Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK).
- Registering on the PMRT (Perinatal Mortality Review Tool) at the time of the patient safety incident (the PMRT is completed in collaboration with us when the investigation ends).
- Reporting to NHS Resolution using the Claims Reporting Wizard, quoting the MNSI reference.