Adverse events are a part of surgery, and we know that they impact the wellbeing of surgeons both personally and professionally. Despite this, the profession has been slow to recognise the breadth and depth of the impact on surgeons in the UK and slower still in considering how it should respond.   

RCS England’s Supporting Surgeons After Adverse Events good practice guidance provides information on mitigating the impact of such events on surgeons, enabling better patient care and enhancing professional satisfaction.

To help implement this guidance into mainstream surgical practice, RCS England is recruiting 20 trusts and health boards across the UK to join the SUrgeon Peer-led POst-incident Response Teams Improvement Collaborative (RCS England SUPPORT Improvement Collaborative), a unique new initiative aimed at improving the support systems provided to surgeons after adverse events across the UK.

SUPPORT1 Project Outline

We launched SUPPORT Improvement Collaborative in January 2024. We recruited 12 sites from the UK and Ireland and are supporting them to introduce, develop, and maintain the practical approaches described by the RCS England’s Supporting Surgeons After Adverse Events good practice guidance and through this, improve the support provided to surgeons after adverse events in surgery. 

The project team delivering SUPPORT is a multi-professional team with expertise in surgery, psychology, Quality Improvement and QI project support.

The project's live phase concluded in December 2024 and is currently in the evaluation and reporting phase.

Timeline

• Recruitment, payment and pre-launch
  July 2023–November 2023

• Set-up and planning
  November 2023–December 2023

• Improvement Collaborative – live phase
  January 2024–December 2024

• Evaluation and reporting
  January 2025–June 2025

Join SUPPORT2

Recruitment for SUPPORT2 is now live.

There is a one-off cost of £7,500 (plus VAT) per trust or health board to join the project. In addition, trusts and health boards need to cover their travel and expenses to any in-person meetings.  

The named project lead and data lead should be allocated time in their job plan to lead the project locally.

Email supportImprovement@rcseng.ac.uk for the registration form and further information about SUPPORT2.

SUPPORT2 planned timeline

• Recruitment, payment and pre-launch
  January 2025–June 2025

• Set-up and planning
  July 2025–December 2025

• Improvement Collaborative – live phase
  January 2026–March 2027
  
  
• Evaluation and reporting
  April 2027–September 2027