A recent example21 was described in which anaesthetists
were ‘banned’ from taking food or hot drinks into anaesthetic
rooms. The impact of tiredness, fatigue, and hunger on slips
and lapses were noted in the critical incident studies9 12 and
the GMC study.8
The importance of latent conditions is that if they are not
dealt with, then the same pattern of errors may be seen and
the chances of a serious incident resulting in patient harm
become greater. Detection of latent conditions leads into
the next section.