10.08.05
Lady Luck smiled on us (An encounter with risk management)
When you work as a clinician hopefully you have a working knowledge of risk, how to assess it and how to avoid doing anything so risky that you could be accused of being negligent. This week though I had my first encounter with the scheme which allows trusts to have a reduction in it’s insurance premiums if they can prove they are doing enough to reduce risk to staff and patients.
What a voyage of discovery it all turned out to be, for instance did you know there is an NHS department called the Litigation Agency? Their website is full of advice and information for interested clinicians and risk managers. Not sure our risk manager had ever looked at it, or read the lovely manual they produce to help trusts show their compliance.
This led me on a merry dance of proving our compliance while not really knowing what I was trying to show we were compliant in. A few months ago we decided to write an induction policy to go with the new induction programme we were planning. Apparently though this is a requirement of the NHSLA, what a piece of luck! Anyway, by the skin of our teeth we have passed (proved ourself compliant), well will do in 6 weeks when that policy and another have been through the board. But what a lesson the whole experience has been, I for one will never again trust that the person who’s job it is to ensure that things like this go smoothly, I will be doing my own homework. Risk is after all a risky business!
