Show Notes
Healthcare is inherently risky and so as child health professionals we need to make patient safety a priority in all our actions. We need to think about safety all the time. In episode 1 of our series on paediatric patient safety, we speak with Dr Peter Lachman, who develops and delivers programmes for clinical leaders in quality improvement at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin. As Peter explains on the podcast, we healthcare professionals need to know patient safety theory - but, more importantly, we need to know how to apply it, drive improvement and create a workplace culture that fosters safe working practices. Everyone - from the most junior member of the team to the most senior paediatric clinical leader - needs to think about patient safety all day every day. A safe culture takes time to build. Shared activities such as handover, huddles and debrief can model good behaviour and benefit performance. Repeating behaviours that represent a safe culture can create a virtuous cycle which can change deeply held attitudes and beliefs, then ultimately the safe culture overall. Thank you for listening. Dr Natalie Wyatt, RCPCH Clinical Fellow and Jonathan Bamber RCPCH Head of Quality Improvement Produced by 18Sixty Please be advised that this series contains stories relating to child death and harm. All views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast series belong to the guests and not necessarily to their employer, linked organisations or RCPCH. Download transcript (PDF) About the Patient safety podcast series As doctors we 'first, do no harm'. However, the systems in which we work are rife with safety issues and resultant harm. In thinking about how to improve this, we have brought together leaders in the field to discuss challenging and thought-provoking issues around keeping our children safe in healthcare settings. We hope you will be entertained, educated, and energised to make strides in improving the safety of the children that you care for. There are lots of resources that expand on this on the RCPCH Patient Safety Portal, including the theory of patient safety culture and examples of how people across the UK are doing this well. Visit at https://safety.rcpch.ac.uk. More about Dr Peter Lachman Dr Peter Lachman develops and delivers programmes to develop clinical leaders in quality improvement at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin. He works with HSE Global in Africa, and he was Chief Executive Officer of the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) from 1 May 2016 to 30 April 2021. Peter was a Health Foundation Quality Improvement Fellow at IHI in 2005-2006 and then went on to be the Deputy Medical Director with the lead for Patient Safety at Great Ormond Street Hospital 2006-2016. Peter was also a Consultant Paediatrician at the Royal Free Hospital in London specialising in the challenge of long-term conditions for children. Peter is the lead editor of the OUP Handbook on Patient Safety published in April 2022; Co-Editor of the OUP Handbook on Medical Leadership and Management published in December 2022; and Editor of the OUP Handbook on Quality Improvement to be published in 2024. Topics/organisations/papers referenced in this podcast ISQUA (International Society for Quality in Healthcare) Oxford Professional Practice: Handbook Of Patient Safety IHI (Institute for Health Improvement) Human factors - on RCPCH Patient Safety Portal S.A.F.E. Collaborative - on RCPCH Patient Safety Portal Cincinnati Childrens Hospital patient safety Paediatric Early Warning System (NHS England) BMJ Quality & Safety journal Lachman, P., Linkson, L., Evans, T., Clausen, H., & Hothi, D. (2015). Developing person-centred analysis of harm in a paediatric hospital: a quality improvement report. BMJ quality & safety, 24(5), 337–344 Health Foundation A framework for measuring quality, with Professor Charles Vincent et al WellChild: the national charity for sick children Applied human
More from RCPCH Podcasts
In the third and final episode of Building Capacity: Past, Present and Future, Dr Leila Ellis of the Trainee Research Network is joined by Dr Nick Brown, Editor-in-Chief of Archives of Disease in Childhood, to explore critical appraisal, peer review and the publication process.
In the second episode of our Building Capacity: Past, Present and Future series, recorded at the RCPCH Trainee Research Network National Conference in Stafford, we explore stepping outside of standard training routes. Dr Leila Ellis of the Trainee Research Network speaks with Dr Sharna Shanmugavadivel and Dr Priyen Shah about how their careers have developed beyond the conventional clinical academic route. They discuss finding opportunities, mentors and how research experience can open doors into areas such as policy, artificial intelligence and health technology. Sharna and Priyen's experiences show how varied a career involving research can be and how opportunities can emerge from clinical questions, new skills and connections made along the way. Dr Leila Ellis is a member of the RCPCH Trainee Research Network and the Severn Paediatric Audit, Research and Quality Improvement Network. She is currently undertaking a Wellcome-funded PhD at the University of Bristol. Dr Sharna Shanmugavadivel is a PEM GRID trainee specialising in paediatric emergency medicine and has an interest in public health and health policy. She completed an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship after completing an OOPE as the HeadSmart fellow and currently leads the Child Cancer Smart campaign. Sharna was most recently appointed by the Secretary of State to Vice-Chair England's first Children and Young People's Cancer Taskforce at the Department of Health and Social Care using research to inform the recently published National Cancer Plan. Dr Priyen Shah is a paediatrician and Head of AI at Lantum. His background spans paediatrics, machine learning and infectious-disease research, and he now works on the application of artificial intelligence to healthcare workforce planning. Explore the resources mentioned in this episode: RCPCH Trainee Research Network - https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/rcpch-trainee-research-network - find out about the national network, regional trainee research networks, research resources, and opportunities to get involved. Child Cancer Smart – https://www.cclg.org.uk/childcancersmart - an evidence-based campaign for families and professionals aiming to improve earlier diagnosis of cancer in children and teenagers. Lantum – https://www.lantum.com/ - a healthcare workforce platform that supports NHS and other healthcare organisations with staff rostering and workforce management. Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) fellowships – https://post.parliament.uk/fellowships/ - placements for researchers interested in gaining experience of how evidence is used in Parliament and policymaking. Fellows may contribute to parliamentary research briefings or work with Select Committees and other parliamentary teams. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast relates only to the speakers and not necessarily to their employers, organisations, RCPCH or any other group or individual.
In the first episode of our Building Capacity: Past, Present and Future series, recorded at the RCPCH Trainee Research Network National Conference in Stafford, we explore some of the different ways paediatricians can become involved in research. Dr Leila Ellis of the Trainee Research Network speaks with Professor Will Carroll, Professor Damian Roland and Dr Jon Elliot about the current child health research landscape and why research should be part of everyday paediatric practice. They discuss the importance of building research capacity beyond traditional academic centres, how collaborative networks can help answer clinically important questions, and the opportunities available for resident doctors to contribute to research at different stages of their careers. Dr Leila Ellis is a member of the RCPCH Trainee Research Network and the Severn Paediatric Audit, Research and Quality Improvement Network. She is currently undertaking a Wellcome-funded PhD at the University of Bristol. Professor Will Carroll is the Honorary Professor of Child Health at Staffordshire Children's Hospital. He has gradually carved out a career in medical education and paediatric research to complement his years as both a general paediatrician (11 years as a consultant) and a respiratory paediatrician (11 years). He is the ex-officio RCPCH Joint Officer for Research and the RCPCH Officer for England (West). Professor Damian Roland is a past chair of PERUKI where he led on developing the research group into a self-sustaining organisation that delivers care through over 70 affiliated Children's Emergency Departments in the UK and Ireland. He is a Paediatric Emergency Medicine Consultant at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, the System Clinical Director for Urgent and Emergency Care at the Leicestershire and Northamptonshire ICS and the NHS England lead for the deteriorating child. Dr Jon Elliot is a Neonatal GRID Resident at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Co-Chair of NeoTRIPS, the national neonatal resident doctor-led research and quality improvement network. Explore the resources mentioned in this episode: RCPCH Trainee Research Network - https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/rcpch-trainee-research-network - find out about the national network, regional trainee research networks, research resources, and opportunities to get involved. RCPCH Progress+ domain resources: Research and scholarship - https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/rcpch-progress-domain-resources-research-scholarship - resources supporting the research and scholarship domain of the paediatric curriculum. Paediatric Emergency Research in the UK and Ireland (PERUKI) - https://www.peruki.org/ – a collaborative network supporting multicentre paediatric emergency medicine research across the UK and Ireland. PERUKI also accepts study proposals and provides information for clinicians interested in joining the network or bringing forward a research idea. NeoTRIPS - https://neotrips.org/ – a national neonatal study group using resident doctor networks to deliver large-scale research and quality improvement projects. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast relates only to the speakers and not necessarily to their employers, organisations, RCPCH or any other group or individual.
How can we manage major career transitions? How do we ensure colleagues get the support needed to succeed?
How can you use your voice to enact impact? In the penultimate episode of our Leading the Way series, Dr Jonathan Darling, our recently departed Vice President for Education and Workforce, speaks with his successor, Dr Yincent Tse, a paediatric nephrologist. The two share valuable insights into leadership, quality improvement and the positive mindset needed to create lasting change. Jonathan and Yincent discuss the importance of saying 'yes' to opportunities, but also knowing when it is time to move on. Yincent encourages leaders to talk to as many people as possible and to celebrate their colleagues. Coming from a quality improvement background, he approaches his work and leadership by bringing people together, starting small, using the psychology of change and measuring impact. Yincent reflects on his experience growing up with a stammer and how this drove him to use his voice to make connections and centre the voices of his colleagues and patients. An example of this is KidzMed, which started as a conversation between Yincent and his colleagues and patients about the challenges of liquid medicine for children. The result was a QI project across hospitals which converted many CYP from liquid to tablet medicine. Yincent leads with a positive attitude that drives solution-oriented change. Two taekaways for listeners: use your voice and apply quality improvement principles. Read Jonathan's reflections and download the transcript from episode 14 on RCPCH website: https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/news-events/news/2026-08/leading-way-episode-14-leading-through-improvement-dr-yincent-tse KidMed resource for helping your child to swallow tablets on Medicines for Children: https://www.medicinesforchildren.org.uk/news/helping-your-child-to-swallow-tablets-new-resources-from-kidzmed/ Grand round webinar series on RCPCH website: https://learning.rcpch.ac.uk/home/webinars/rcpch-grand-round-webinar-series-2025-26/ Trainee Research Network on RCPCH website: https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/rcpch-trainee-research-network Discover more of our podcasts on RCPCH Learning: https://learning.rcpch.ac.uk/home/podcasts/ The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast relates only to the speaker and not necessarily to their employer, organisation, RCPCH or any other group or individual. About Yincent Dr Yincent Tse is a paediatric nephrologist in Newcastle. He served as our Area Officer for North England, later co-chaired our joint Medicines Committee and lead on our Grand Rounds webinar series. In May 2025, Yincent started his post as Vice President for Education and Workforce.