Patients Dying Daily Due to Poor ‘soft Skills’ Among Australian Surgeons, Experts Warn

More than 1,000 Australians die unnecessarily in hospital each year due to avoidable failures by surgeons, according to experts calling for a senate inquiry.

Graham Beaumont, PhD, and Dr John North are both long-term members of audit committees that review surgical mortality in Australia.

They say patients are dying every day as a result of poor decisions to operate, communication issues, and lacklustre teamwork in operating theatres, as well as incentives for doctors to pursue “futile and unnecessary surgeries”.

The review recommended that surgeons should be regularly peer-reviewed to verify their skills, but those recommendations have not been implemented.

“We need a system of convincing, regular peer review so the public is assured that the delivery of surgical interventions is as safe as it can be,” Beaumont said.

“The goal should be to capture potential events before they happen. In settings where a preventive peer review is embraced, the rogue operator cannot survive.”

Beaumont said international research showed up to 90% of avoidable deaths in surgery exhibit a breakdown in aspects of the soft skills required to communicate, work with others and make consistently good decisions.

“Analysis of Australian data confirms that similar failures cause patient deaths here because surgeons are not trained in how to optimise their decision-making and maximise their success in team-based surgery,” he said.

“Very few deaths are attributable solely to the hard skills – the cutting and sewing.”