Oops! Why Things Go Wrong

Niall Downey, a cardio-thoracic surgeon who retrained as a commercial airline pilot uses his expertise in healthcare and aviation to explore the critical issue of managing human error. With examples from business, politics, sport, technology, finance, education and other fields, Downey makes a powerful case that by following some clear guidelines, any organisation can greatly reduce the incidence and impact of making serious mistakes. While acknowledging that in our fast paced world, getting things wrong is impossible to avoid, Downey offers a strategy based on current best practice that can make a massive difference. He concludes with an aviation-style Safety Management System that can be hugely beneficial in preventing avoidable catastrophes from occurring. An acknowledged expert in error management, Niall advises governments, healthcare organisations and major corporations on how to develop a systemic approach to controlling for human imperfection. Arguing that prevention is far preferable to denying responsibility after the fact, he gave an influential TEDx talk in 2016 outlining how healthcare could use aviation's experience to reduce tragic outcomes and improve patient safety. 'Niall Downey is perhaps the only person in the world who could write this important new book...an owner's manual on how to work, live and play safer by knowing how and why errors happen.' Dr Brian Goldman MD Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto and author of 'The Secret Language of Doctors'.

Niall Downey, a cardio-thoracic surgeon who retrained as a commercial airline pilot uses his expertise in healthcare and aviation to explore the critical issue of managing human error. With examples from business, politics, sport, technology, finance, education and other fields, Downey makes a powerful case that by following some clear guidelines, any organisation can greatly reduce the incidence and impact of making serious mistakes. While acknowledging that in our fast paced world, getting things wrong is impossible to avoid, Downey offers a strategy based on current best practice that can make a massive difference. He concludes with an aviation-style Safety Management System that can be hugely beneficial in preventing avoidable catastrophes from occurring. An acknowledged expert in error management, Niall advises governments, healthcare organisations and major corporations on how to develop a systemic approach to controlling for human imperfection. Arguing that prevention is far preferable to denying responsibility after the fact, he gave an influential TEDx talk in 2016 outlining how healthcare could use aviation's experience to reduce tragic outcomes and improve patient safety. 'Niall Downey is perhaps the only person in the world who could write this important new book...an owner's manual on how to work, live and play safer by knowing how and why errors happen.' Dr Brian Goldman MD Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto and author of 'The Secret Language of Doctors'. We so often sleepwalk through life, assuming the systems around us work for the best. Being attentive to human error not only wakes us from that stupor, but makes us realise the ways in which we can be attentive to our own mistakes. As relevant to big business, industry and elite sport as it is to the individual, error management and how to be alert to it, is such an important conversation to be had in all walks of life. Niall's vast experience and curiosity for the world, make him the perfect person to write this book. Ms Orla Chennaoui Writer, journalist, columnist, TV presenter and Lead Presenter for Eurosport's cycling coverage. Niall takes the reader on a fascinating journey through a condition we all suffer from, human error.  From sport and surgery to aviation and agriculture, this book details both the unfortunate and the catastrophic, why error happens and, most importantly, what we can do about it'   Mark Gallagher, Formula 1 Executive, writer, broadcaster. Author of 'The Business of Winning – Strategic Success from Formula One' In this book, Niall Downey takes a look at error through multiple lenses: from aviation to sport, justice to politics. As a surgeon-turned-pilot, Downey has skin in the game and he casts his net wide to find answers for why things go wrong. Dr Steven Shorrock C.ErgHF Chartered Psychologist and Chartered Human Factors Specialist, Senior HF and Safety Specialist at Eurocontrol, Editor in Chief of Hindsight magazine. Adjunct Associate Professor University of the Sunshine Coast, Honorary Clinical Tutor University of Edinburgh Human connections are essential to delivering person-centred care and sometimes the care environment, culture or the way we do things creates harm. In healthcare this can be catastrophic - this book provides safety critical insights and methods to help eliminate avoidable harm. A must read for healthcare teams. Professor Charlotte McArdle DrSc MSc Deputy Chief Nursing Officer NHS England. Former Chief Nursing Officer, Northern Ireland. "Oops! Why Things Go Wrong" is essential reading for every person who wants to improve their leadership and teamwork skills, be resilient and survive crises. Downey's remarkable and unique knowledge taken from years of experience commanding commercial airline cockpits and surgeries, puts you into the Captain's seat to maximise safety, quality and save lives." Captain Richard de Crespigny AM, Pilot-in-Command and author of QF32 Retired Airbus A380 Captain, Qantas.

Capt Niall Downey FRCSI attended St Columb's College, Derry, Northern Ireland and qualified as a doctor from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland in 1993. He trained as a surgeon in Belfast and received his FRCSI in 1997. He was a trainee in cardio-thoracic surgery working as an SHO in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast before returning to Dublin where he worked as a registrar in the National Cardiac Surgery Unit in the Mater Hospital and Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin. He subsequently retrained as an airline pilot with Aer Lingus in 1999 and combined aviation with medicine by working as an Accident & Emergency doctor for six years before focusing fully on aviation. After operating as a co-pilot on both the European and Trans-Atlantic fleets, he qualified as a captain in 2010. He is currently operating out of their Manchester base on the Airbus A330 Trans-Atlantic fleet. In 2011, Niall formed Frameworkhealth Ltd, a company providing aviation-style safety training modified specifically for healthcare which draws on his thirty-five years of experience between both industries. This project aims to share aviation's Safety Management System with healthcare in order to address the huge issue of Adverse Events, usually caused by systemic faults but often blamed on the last individual to have touched the ball. Niall aims to encourage healthcare to adopt a Just Culture, embed a systemic Human Factors approach and empower patients and their families to speak up as part of the crew. Niall has provided training courses for the new practice-based pharmacists in Northern Ireland in conjunction with NICPLD and has spoken at conferences in Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Alderhey Trust in Liverpool, the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Glasgow, the GMC, the PDA, the BMI London Independent Hospital, the Homerton Hospital in London and many others. Internationally, he has spoken at the World Football Academy Expert Meeting in Lisbon on Error Management's application in soccer and at the European Solid Organ Transplantation conference in Copenhagen in September 2019. In 2022, he spoke at the RSNA global radiology conference in Chicago and has been invited back in 2024. In 2016, Niall was a speaker at TEDx Stormont in Belfast. He was also appointed as an Expert Advisor that year to advise the Northern Ireland Executive's new Improvement Institute which was set up under the Bengoa Report on how aviation can help healthcare address the huge issue of human error and learn to manage it. In 2023, Niall had his first book, 'Oops! Why Things Go Wrong' published which explored the increasingly topical issue of error across industry and society generally and most importantly, how to address it. The book is already in its second print run after a higher than anticipated demand. The success of the book has led to many invitations from outside healthcare and Frameworkhealth has now evolved into Framework Safety Group Ltd in recognition of this broadening scope. Niall lives with his family in Newry, Northern Ireland. More information is available from www.frameworksafety.com and Niall is represented by Debbie at www.performanceinsights.co.uk for corporate speaking enquiries.