My attention was recently drawn to this article published in the Journal of Patient Safety (March 2010 – Volume 6 – Issue 1 – pp 5-14) Story Power: The Secret Weapon is authored by Dennis Quaid, Julie Thao and Charles Denham all of whom have very personal experience of harm in the healthcare context in […]

I began studying safety and quality in surgical care on the first of April 2003. Up to then, my work had involved developing technology and systems to help improve human performance in a range of other industries, including working with pilots on safety skills and with x-ray screeners at airports to improve the detection of […]

In 2005 my late wife died during an attempted routine operation. When I was told it wouldn’t be investigated I couldn’t understand, I didn’t want to blame anyone, but I couldn’t accept that a healthy young life could be lost and apparently no one would try and learn from what happened.  That would be a […]

“A window of opportunity exists to include training in human factors in undergraduate and postgraduate training.” Simon Paterson-Brown, Chair of the Patient Safety Board, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Writing in the BMJ early this month and citing the work of the Clinical Human Factors Group, Simon Paterson-Brown clearly identifies human factors education as […]

In 2001 the learning from the largest public inquiry in the history of the NHS reported its findings. According to Dr Phil Hammond, GP, Broadcaster, Journalist and PATIENTSTORIES contributor, despite years of discussion and debate little has really changed in the culture of the NHS. In this article (first published in Private Eye) Phil explores […]