Doctors need to be able to reflect openly and freely about mistakes they have made.

That was the message ACEM President Dr Simon Judkins delivered when he spoke at DFTB18 in Melbourne this week.

DFTB18 was an acute paediatric conference run by the team at DontForgetTheBubbles.com, founded by a number of doctors, including FACEM Dr Andrew Tagg, who is also member of the ACEM Victoria Faculty Board.

Stressing the need for doctors to accept that they will make mistakes, Dr Judkins also said it was equally important to identify and solve the systemic issues which significantly impact and increase the risk of medical error.

Dr Judkins recounted the story of how he looked after an 11 month old baby and missed a diagnosis of meningococcal meningitis and sepsis.

Fortunately, the young boy survived.

Dr Judkins said he went through emotions of guilt, anger and depression before taking stock, “and I went back and reconstructed all those things that impacted on my capacity to deliver the proper care that was needed”.

“This experience made me realise that we, the College, has a role to play to ensure we have a health care system that allows us to be the best emergency physicians that we can possibly be for our patients,” he said.

Encouraging a culture where is it safe to learn from error, Dr Judkins also stressed the need for having a road map in place, a plan for how to manage these scenarios when they occur in the future.

“I am confident that with the right people, delivering the right messages and building the right teams which are addressing tribalism and breaking down silos that threaten staff safety and patient care and outcomes, that we can decrease risk and improve care in emergency departments and the rest of the hospital system,” Dr Judkins said.

DFTB18 a success

Dr Tagg said the conference was a great success with over 500 delegates from all over the world in attendance.

“It has been an amazing week,” he said. “We’ve had some amazing round of speakers covering everything from the beginning of life to the end of life.

“We’ve have dances, we’ve had songs, we’ve had tears every day, and I think all of our delegates have gone away feeling a little bit better about themselves but also about how they care for patients.”

Next year’s event will be held in London (17-19 June 2019).

“DFTB conferences are unique in that we bring together multiple specialities and multiple levels of experiences – we’ve social workers, we have ambulance women and men, we have nurses and doctors,” Dr Tagg said.

“We are all really working for one common aim and that’s to take care of the patient rather than anything else, and if we can provide a safe culture in this space we hope people can really take that back to their workplace.”

TOPICS