The SafetyBand concept has been led by Mike Henley a consultant Urologist in the UK. He became interested in wrong site surgery after national reporting on the removal of the wrong kidney during surgery in LLanelli. This led to a great deal of public interest and a charge of manslaughter for the doctors involved. Medical errors are sadly part of life as indeed are errors in general part of life. The stakes in medicine are high and errors in surgery are noticeable. We set about designing out this particular error.

The prevention of errors is a growing field of research. Traditionally in healthcare we have attempted to avoid error by placing all of the responsibility on individuals. If they fail we deliver blame. The hope is that the fear of punishment will stop errors. Sadly it does not. The intrathecal injection of vincristine is a case in point. Fourteen individuals have died in the UK alone from the same medical error. Again, despite some of the doctors responsible being charged with manslaughter.

A more reliable way of reducing error is to build systems that either reduce the risk, or, make it almost impossible to occur. The injection sets for vincristine have been changed so that the agent cannot be given into the spine again. Rather than punish the individual the system has been changed to make error impossible.

It is our aim to engineer a system which makes performing the wrong operation very difficult. By ensuring that the anaesthetic will not begin until two doctors have checked the notes, x-rays and discussed the procedure with the patient in the anaesthetic room it will make error much more difficult.

The SafetyBand has been developed in consultation with surgeons, theatre staff and the NPSA. It made under license by one of the UK's leading suppliers of patient identity bracelets. We aim to make the system work for your needs. If you would like an adaptation of the band for any purpose please get in touch using the contact page. We would be delighted to help.

One of the areas of difficulty with all changes to practice is the navigation of the relevant clinical governance committees, here is a document that has been used in this process already. Please feel free to download it and modify as necessary. For further help please contact us via the contact page.