Avoidable deaths in Britain's National Health Service - a systems-thinking informed analysis using data garnered from government agencies, representative bodies, private canvassing and public inquiries
by Simon Ashley Bennett
International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management (IJHTM), Vol. 18, No. 1/2, 2020

Abstract: Medical error kills significant numbers of patients around the world. There are circa 150 avoidable patient deaths each month in the UK. This paper uses systems-thinking to reveal the causes of medical error and avoidable death in the National Health Service (NHS). It is concluded that such problems emerge from a web of factors that include defensiveness, careerism, bullying, target-chasing, under-funding, cost-cutting, overstretch and inefficient legacy capital. Efforts to transform the NHS into a learning organisation, in which errors and malpractice are reported, have been thwarted by intimidation, undermining and bullying. The culture of the NHS may reasonably be described as pathogenic. If it is to become a learning organisation in which risk is managed proactively, the NHS must transform its organisational culture, much as aviation has done. The aviation industry's safety journey teaches that detoxification takes decades of sustained effort and that change is a top-down process.

Online publication date: Mon, 02-Aug-2021

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