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We Need Your Help

Everyone would wish that surgical interventions could be risk-free and for there never to be any accidents, mishaps or even near-misses. But the truth is that no matter how carefully everything is done, where it is done, or who does it, there will always be risks and sometimes things will go wrong.

CORESS is dedicated to making surgery safer by encouraging clinical staff to anonymously submit reports of cases where things went wrong or turned out to be near-misses. A senior panel of doctors then analyses all the circumstances and produces a report together with recommendations from which others can learn – as in the aircraft industry, this knowledge is used to try to prevent such instances being repeated.

No-one involved in surgical care has any interest in seeing anything but the very best outcomes, but we are all human and despite everyone’s earnest endeavours problems and complications will arise from time to time. Yet forewarned is forearmed. With your help we will be able to increase our coverage and reporting so that all members of the surgical community can use the learning produced through CORESS to help prevent further issues as they arise in everyday practice. We all want to improve safety for our patients (one day many of us will be patients ourselves) so please help us as we try to make the surgical world an even safer place for our patients.

How will CORESS seek to extend its reach?

In operation since 2005 (registered as a charity 1134175 in 2009) CORESS is embarking on a programme of expansion. There are a number of surrogate markers which indicate a) that CORESS does have an impact on surgical behaviours and systems and b) that the system’s potential is under exploited.

To date the programme has not had the resources to publish independently and improve its circulation, although there has been a steady increase in the number of journals wishing to carry its reports. Furthermore, the experience of CORESS has been used by Government in its approaches to Patient Safety initiatives and specifically the introduction of the Health Services Safety Investigation Agency (HSSIB) – with whom CORESS has established formal links.

Twenty-five years of well-received, successful operation in General Surgery and its subspecialties suggests there is a strong case for more widespread application of the CORESS approach to the other defined UK surgical specialties.

The Trustees have conducted a careful review of the performance of CORESS and the case for its further development. Concluding that it would be in the interests of patient safety and the programme’s charitable purposes, CORESS is embarking on a programme of development. This will comprise four main objectives:

  1. Expanding the reporting of precursor and other events
  2. Increasing the circulation of CORESS feedback reports
  3. Active ‘marketing’ of the programme for adaptation and use by all the surgical specialties.
  4. Contributing to or initiating other activities which promote a Patient Safety Culture in UK healthcare (e.g. occasional
    publications, training courses, etc.).

How can I contribute?

There are several ways. If you are a member of a surgical team and have come across a potential or actual near miss, please consider reporting through the confidential reporting portal on this website. Similarly, if you detect practices, routines or instruments that you feel could be vulnerable to mishap.

CORESS is a charity. It supplements, in a unique manner, the work of other organisations focussed on Patient Safety. The charity’s resources are slender and none our officers, apart from our administrator, are paid. We have attracted a number of generous sponsors without whom we would not be able to continue. If you or your organisation wish to join us and contribute to CORESS’s work, please get in touch through our website.

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