Risk management has recently become
something of a buzzword in the National
Health Service (NHS), although it has been
recognised within the business world and
industry for a long time. For many years,
the aviation industry has learnt detailed
lessons from its disasters and near misses to
try to make flying safer. Medicine and allied
professions can use risk management to
achieve the same end.
Risk management is something that will
have a significant impact on the NHS in the
near future and will be rapidly implemented,
even faster than it was in the aviation
industry. As with clinical governance in
general, clinical risk management will
inevitably affect all clinicians in the NHS.
Hospital optometrists will no doubt be
affected by these changes before their
community general practice colleagues.