Hello HIFA Colleagues
I have recently joined HIFA as a member of the steering group for the HIFA forum on safe care for non-communicable diseases. [ www.hifa.org/patientsafety ]
I trained as a clinical psychologist a long time ago but I have spent most of my career working on risk management and patient safety. I have been based at universities in the UK, but worked in many clinical settings, including running a research group in a department of surgery and cancer. In the early years, when the term patient safety didn’t even exist, we developed methods of analysing clinical incidents and carried out studies of the scale of error and harm. Later we carried out research on teamwork in the operating theatre, the measurement and monitoring of safety, managing risk under pressure and other safety related topics. I have also had a longstanding concern with the impact of error and harm on patients, families and staff and how we can best support people in the aftermath of harm.
In recent years, now based in Oxford, I have worked with a global health group who collaborate on research to support care in Africa and run training programmes on improvement and implementation in global health. We have learned that many safety concepts and methods, originally developed in other industries or in richer systems, can be effectively used in low resource settings and have seen many really impressive projects to improve the safety of care.
I am looking forward to the discussion on the forum next week and to learning about the experiences of HIFA members in both understanding and improving the safety of care in different settings
With best wishes
Charles Vincent
HIFA profile: Charles Vincent trained as a clinical psychologist and worked in the British NHS for several years. Since 1985 he has focused on conducting research on the causes of harm to patients, the consequences for patients and staff, and methods of improving the safety of healthcare. charles.vincent AT psy.ox.ac.uk