Innovations guide to stop mavericks

By a staff reporter

Entrepreneurial surgeons have been given new guidance with updated thinking on the development and implementation of surgical innovations such as robot-assisted surgery and new operating techniques. 

The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS) says a strong framework is needed for developing surgical innovations to ensure patient safety, as well as the patients’ best interests, always come first. 

It has previously called for national guidelines on the introduction of new procedures and technologies and indicated it is ready to work with the Department of Health and Social Care and the GMC in developing these. 

This followed an inquiry by the Newcastle coroner Karen Dilks into the tragic death of a 69-year-old man, Stephen Pettitt, who suffered multiple organ failure after robot-assisted heart valve surgery.