Upholding patient safety and ensuring the highest standards of patient care are core values of the College and at the heart of all the work the College undertakes. Patient safety is embedded in the rigorous professional standards that run through all our educational, examination and audit activities. The College team works hard to improve safety for patients, for surgeons, for teams, for organisations - for all.
RCSEd Patient Safety Group
The Patient Safety Group (PSG) exists to ensure that RCSEd’s core professional standards, training and education activities are focused on continuously improving patient safety and reducing harm, coordinating the College’s approach to this global health priority.
The RCSEd Patient Safety Board was established in 2008 following the development of the NOTSS (Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons) taxonomy. Under the successive stewardship of Professor George Youngson and Mr Simon Paterson Brown, the board worked to promote understanding of human factors in surgery. Today, NOTSS programmes are an integral part of the RCSEd education portfolio and an established part of surgical training worldwide.
To build on the hugely successful work of this board, the new RCSEd Patient Safety Group was launched in August 2018. This multidisciplinary group is drawn from all faculties of the College and includes representatives from both the wider surgical team and patients. It supports and co-ordinates existing RCSEd patient safety initiatives, setting a proactive safety agenda for the College.
A critical factor in ensuring patient safety is through improving the wellbeing of the surgical workforce and we are dedicated to improving the delivery of safe surgical care within the working environment for all involved. Through liaising with external bodies, establishing links with sister organisations, publishing influential reports and running sector-wide campaigns we seek to influence healthcare policy to enhance patient safety.
The PSG does this by:
- Providing RCSEd members and fellows with expertise and advice on patient safety issues, for example, through the recent Patient Safety webinar, blog and podcast series.
- Promoting good practice and co-ordinating training to improve the safety of surgical care, such as the Surgical Ward Round Toolkit web resource.
- Increasing awareness of clinical human factors to improve the safety of surgical care, for example, helping to co-ordinate various training resources (Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons (NOTSS), PINTS and DeNTS) and developing collaborations with national human factors groups (e.g. Clinical Human Factors Group).
- Working with medical educators, NHS bodies, and other Royal Colleges to promote transparent, collaborative, and supportive care.
- Raising the importance of healthcare workers’ resilience and wellbeing in ensuring patient safety.
- Improving the surgical workplace environment by supporting surgical teams and helping to address conflict within them.
- Promoting RCSEd campaigns, such as the hugely successful Anti-bullying and undermining campaign #letsremoveit, where safety is enhanced through continuous learning rather than blame, and the recent SexualHarrasment #letsremoveit campaign, where all in the surgical and dental workforce are supported and treated with respect.
- Encouraging RCSEd Fellows and Members to provide feedback from their Team Based Quality Review meetings to promote a culture of learning; we work closely with the Scottish Morbidity and Mortality Programme, CORESS, and NHS England Patient Safety Strategy.
- Providing resources to supporting the surgical team when mistakes happen in surgery.
- Ensuring RCSEd representation on national audits of practice, such as NCEPOD (National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcomes and Death).
- Providing information and support on informed consent, through the successful ICoNS course.
- Promoting best practice in Duty of Candour.
- Contributing to policy consultations and influencing policy makers.
Members of the RCSEd Patient Safety Group
The Patient Safety Group is led by RCSEd Council Member Miss Anna Paisley, a Consultant General and Upper GI Surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.
- Miss Anna Paisley (Council Member and Chair)
- Mrs Claire Morgan (Deputy Chair and Dental Faculty Representative)
- Mr Ray Delicata (Faculty of Peri-Operative Care Representative)
- Mr Nicholas Fletcher (Faculty of Peri-Operative Care Representative)
- Mr Richard Steyn (Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care Representative)
- Professor Angus Watson (Faculty of Remote, Rural and Humanitarian Healthcare Representative)
- Mr James Tomlinson (Faculty of Surgical Trainers Representative)
- Ms Katie Hurst (Trainees’ Committee Representative)
- Dr Sarah Manton (Faculty of Dental Trainers Representative)
- Katie Hurst (Trainees’ Committee Representative)
- Mr Majid Mukadam (SASLE Committee Representative)
- Dr Sarah Healey (Younger Fellows Group Representative)
- Professor Steven Yule (RCSEd Director of Non-Technical Skills)
- Mr Joel Norton (Research Fellow and Sabermetrics Group Representative)
- Ms Sarah Milliken (Scottish Clinical leadership Fellow)
- Dr Michael Moneypenny (Anaesthetic Representative)
- Professor Bryn Baxendale (Anaesthetic Representative)
- Mr Eddie McGill (Patient Representative)
- Miss Edith Scott (Patient Representative)
- Ms Annie Sorbie (Lay Representative)
- Mr Chris McEwan (AoMRC Patient & Lay Committee Representative)
- Ms Helen Hughes (Chief Executive, Patient Safety Learning)
- Mr Chris Sanderson (Director of Policy and Public Affairs)
RCSEd Patient Safety Group Members
Learn more about our Patient Safety Group members, a multidisciplinary team drawn from all areas of the College, including experts from the wider surgical team and patient representatives, all working together to promote patient safety and improve healthcare outcomes.
View Members
Patient Safety Resources
The Patient Safety Group work hard to ensure that all members of the surgical and dental team have appropriate access to resources that will help inform their practice, and allow them to hold their standards up to the high expectations concerning patient care. You can find a wealth of such resources on our Patient Safety Resources.
Find Out More
Patient Safety at RCSEd
The Patient Safety Group has used the SEIPS model to analyse RCSEd college activity; providing a global overview of the College’s safety activity and delineating the many elements we can mobilise to meet safety demands. Find the full details of this review by clicking on the link below.
Find Out More
Resources and Information for Patients, Families and Carers
The Patient Safety Group have developed a range of resources to help support patients, together with their families and carers, during their surgical journey, from initial referral, through outpatient or emergency consultation, to preparation for and recovery from surgery.
Find Out MoreContact us
For all enquiries regarding RCSEd’s patient safety work, please contact Chris Sanderson: c.sanderson@rcsed.ac.uk or patientsafety@rcsed.ac.uk