In March 2026, Louise McKinlay, Chief Executive Officer of Safer Care Victoria (SCV), represented Victoria at the BMJ/Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare, engaging with leading health system organisations from around the world to share learning and strengthen global partnerships.
Safer Care Victoria was invited to the forum in recognition of Victoria’s leadership in quality and safety improvement.
Ms McKinlay presented Victoria’s approach to strengthening system‑level learning from harm and quality improvement, highlighting a deliberate shift away from incident reporting as an end in itself and toward sustained learning, leadership accountability and cultural change across the health system.
The presentation emphasised the critical role of leadership, transparency, trust and psychological safety in improving patient outcomes. Ms McKinlay shared practical Victorian examples, including the Victorian children's tool for observation and response (ViCTOR) chart, demonstrating how effective data visualisation and structured improvement methods support shared accountability and enable health services to learn collectively over time. The session was generated strong engagement from international delegates, reinforcing Victoria’s reputation as a trusted international leader in quality and safety.
Alongside the Forum, Ms McKinlay undertook a series of meetings and site visits with international health system leaders and organisations, including the Danish Society for Patient Safety, the Patient Safety Commissioner, Patient Safety Watch, the Health Services Safety Investigations Body, The King’s Fund and East London NHS Foundation Trust.
These discussions strengthened international partnerships, supported benchmarking against best practice, and provided valuable insights into contemporary approaches to patient safety, leadership and learning from harm. They also informed future improvement priorities and opportunities for ongoing international collaboration
Across these engagements, a consistent message emerged: health systems making the greatest progress have moved away from compliance‑focused and incident‑driven responses, and toward authentic, system‑wide learning from harm. This shift is underpinned by transparency, psychological safety and clear leadership accountability. The conversations reinforced the importance of leaders at all levels creating the conditions for learning and improvement, rather than relying solely on individual projects or controls.
These international engagements have strengthened Safer Care Victoria’s global connections and confirmed strong alignment between international best practice and SCV’s strategic direction. The insights gained will continue to inform how Safer Care Victoria supports leadership, learning and improvement across the Victorian health system, contributing to safer care for all Victorians.