Welcome letter

Dear All,

In the early 2000’s a paediatric cardiac surgical and intensive care team from Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital (GOSH) in London initiated a successful study in which they used the analogy of a Formula 1 pit-stop (with McLaren and Ferrari) as a template to improve the safety and efficiency of the handover of critically ill infants and children from the operating theatre to the intensive care team after complex heart surgery. It soon became apparent that there were multiple opportunities for healthcare workers to learn from world-class professionals from other safety critical industries and sport and apply this to our every-day practice in medicine.

In order to engage healthcare professionals in this learning, a conference called ‘Everybody’s Business / Risky Business: Learning from other high-risk industries’ was organized between Great Ormond Street Hospital and The Royal College of Surgeons in England in November 2006. The theme was to learn from defining or sentinel moments in other high-risk industries and discover which of these lessons could be translated to medicine to improve patient safety.

Following on the tremendous success of this first conference, an expanding collaborative venture evolved over the next few years with Risky Business Conferences having been held around the world including London, Boston & Toronto.

We have held 5 very successful Risky Business meetings in South Africa and would now like to welcome you to back to Cape Town for this meeting hosted at the Royal Cape Yacht Club by the team based at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital.

We have an array of wonderful speakers from a range of industries and environments, as we explore the risks and challenges associated with healthcare in South Africa and consider the changes required to make healthcare safer.

Our particular focus on this occasion is “building the links in the chain of excellence / safety” as standards of excellence are demanded in what we do, often without increased resources.

We know that this meeting will open new opportunities and be a catalyst for change in the “Risky Business” that is healthcare.

We look forward to welcoming you to the meeting.

Nurses

The complexity of healthcare demands exceptional skills in Leadership and Teamwork. It also requires that we can react to incredibly challenging situations at a moment’s notice. Our conference speakers have extraordinary stories to tell which address many of these issues.

Doctors

This is a patient safety conference with a big difference. Exceptional speakers, from a wide array of high risk environments, share their stories of endeavour, safety, risk, human factors, systems and quality improvement.

Other Professionals

Our motivational and world renown speakers tell their own stories of overcoming seemingly impossible odds. The lessons we can all draw from their experiences will help us manage risk and make our work environments safer, more efficient and happier places.