David Oliver: Treating NHS staff fairly when things go wrong.

David Oliver: What's wrong with being honest with the public about NHS pressures?

In December I was on a conference panel discussing “How to save the NHS.” I said that we needed to be far more honest with the public and realistic about what the service can currently offer, given unprecedented demand, unfilled posts, and a widening gap in funding. We must make it clear to patients, I said, that they will often face longer waits in GP surgeries, emergency departments, and hosp...

Understanding and responding when things go wrong: key principles for primary care educators.

Learning from events with unwanted outcomes is an important part of workplace based education and providing evidence for medical appraisal and revalidation. It has been suggested that adopting a 'systems approach' could enhance learning and effective change. We believe the following key principles should be understood by all healthcare staff, especially those with a role in developing and deliv...

Barriers to incident reporting in a healthcare system.

BACKGROUND Learning from mistakes is key to maintaining and improving the quality of care in the NHS. This study investigates the willingness of healthcare professionals to report the mistakes of others. METHODS The questionnaire used in this research included nine short scenarios describing either a violation of a protocol, compliance with a protocol, or improvisation (where no protocol exis...

David Oliver: Values statements aren't worth the paper.

In A Sceptic’s Medical Dictionary, the great Michael O’Donnell mademischievous fun of mission statements in the NHS, calling them “pious utterances trusts print below their expensively commissioned logo.”Values statements are close siblings; both are ubiquitous in health and social care. There’s nothing wrong with publicising your guiding values. But I suspect that most patients and families wo...

Getting it right when things go wrong.