How We Really WHO: Assessing Completeness, Team Engagement, Distractions and Authority Gradient During 'Time Out' Component of WHO Safer Surgery Checklist.

Background: Anecdotal experience suggests that WHO Safer Surgery Checklist has become a 'tickbox' exercise, resulting in variable team engagement and efficacy.

Aims: To observe the quality and completeness of 'Time Out', together with the level of team engagement during obstetrics and gynaecology procedures.

Materials And Methods: Observational study where the following data were collected during 'Time Out': % of the 19 items correctly responded to after 'challenge'.

Developing the 'checking' discipline.

We explore how engagement with checklists and adoption of a strict 'checking' discipline help avoid unintentional individual, team and systemic errors. Paradoxically, this is equally important when performing repetitive mundane tasks as well as during times of high-stress workload. In this article, we aim to discuss the different types of checklists and explain how deviations from a 'checking' discipline can lead to never events such as wrong side or site surgery.

Why are patients not more involved in their own safety? A questionnaire-based survey in a multi-ethnic North London hospital population.

Purpose: Active patient participation in safety pathways has demonstrated benefits in reducing preventable errors, especially in relation to hand hygiene and surgical site marking. The authors sought to examine patient participation in a range of safety-related behaviours as well as factors that influence this, such as gender, education, age and language.

Design: A 20-point questionnaire was employed in a London teaching hospital to explore safety-related behaviours, particularly assessing patient's willingness to challenge healthcare professionals and engagement in taking an active role in their own care while in hospital.

The impact of distractions and interruptions during Cesarean Sections: a prospective study in a London teaching hospital.

Purpose: During Cesarean Sections, distractions which interrupt task specific activities include auditory, equipment, theatre traffic, and irrelevant communication. Aims of this study were to investigate frequency and types of distractions and to assess impact on patient safety and theatre efficiency.

Methods: Prospective observational study in a London hospital in women undergoing elective and emergency Cesarean Sections.

Pregnancy outcomes in women greater than 45 years: a cohort control study in a multi-ethnic inner city population.

Objective: To examine the pregnancy outcomes of women >45 years in a multi-ethnic population when compared to controls and to reflect on socio-demographic details of the older mothers.

Design: A retrospective cohort control study over an 8-year period in an inner city London hospital with multi-ethnic population. The influence of advanced maternal age (>45 years at time of delivery) on fetal and maternal outcomes was assessed by comparing these women to controls (aged 20-30 years) matched for ethnicity, country of origin and parity.

Maternal and neonatal outcomes of spontaneously conceived pregnancies in mothers over 45 years: a review of the literature.

Purpose: There is little published data on pregnancy outcomes in women who had conceived spontaneously after age 45 years. The aim of this review is to provide accurate information on the risks and probable outcomes of spontaneously conceived pregnancies in women over the age of 45 years, which will enable clinicians to counsel such women appropriately, carry out adequate risk assessment, and ensure better care for pregnancies in this population.

Design: A literature search was performed using EmBase and PubMed for English language articles published between 1970 and 2011, with extractable data on mothers aged ≥45 at the time of delivery and with ≥95% spontaneous conception in the study population.

Self-reported oral hygiene habits, dental attendance and attitudes to dentistry during pregnancy in a sample of immigrant women in North London.

Aims: The aim of this study was to describe self-reported oral health, oral hygiene habits, frequency of visits to a dentist and factors associated with dental attendance among pregnant women at a North London Hospital, the majority of whom are immigrants.

Background: Peridontal disease is associated with an increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. The aim of this study is to describe self-reported oral health, oral hygiene habits, frequency of visits to a dentist and factors associated with dental attendance among pregnant women at a North London Hospital, the majority of whom are immigrants.

The "catheter bag" sign revisited: a simple way detecting bladder trauma during operative laparoscopic procedures.

Early detection and repair of bladder perforation reduce postoperative morbidity. We describe two cases of bladder perforation sustained during complicated laparoscopic adhesiolysis and discuss a previously reported simple method of detecting bladder trauma during operative laparoscopy.

The effect of pregnancy on pre-existing osteopenia: a case report.

A 34-year-old Greek Cypriot lady (Mrs. AMC) P(2+0) booked at 10 weeks gestation with spontaneously conceived dizygotic twins. Her two previous uncomplicated pregnancies resulted in normal vaginal deliveries of male infants weighing 3.