A surgeon’s take on human and organisational factors: A conversation with Manoj Kumar

Summary

This article, originally published in HindSight magazine, details a conversation between Steven Shorrock and with Manoj Kumar, consultant general surgeon with a background also in safety, human factors, and training.

Manoj provides insights and perspectives on the realities of work in healthcare, and the team’s role in improvement.

Content

Key Points

• The ‘new reality’ in healthcare has most elements of the ‘old reality’, in terms of leadership thinking and organisational culture.
• Those in positions of senior leadership need to be as adaptable and agile in decision making and learning as other professionals.
• Teams can resolve most problems and realise most opportunities, given the time, freedom and resources.
• Team-based quality reviews link reporting directly to regular team discussions, and feed the team’s learning back into training and the governance process.
• Focusing only on learning from adverse outcomes or snapshots of work can result in a lot of lost learning.
• Reducing unnecessary bureaucracy can enable horizontal communication and adaptability in an organisation, making it more effective.
• Issues of wellbeing and diversity are now issues of active reflection and discussion.