Kevin Stewart: More safety, less blame

Biography

Kevin Stewart, 59, is medical director of the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch, a recently established autonomous body in the English NHS. After graduating from Queen’s University Belfast he trained in geriatric medicine, which he still practices part time in Winchester. He has been medical director of Winchester’s acute trust and a Health Foundation quality improvement fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston, Massachusetts, where he completed a masters in public health degree at Harvard. He led the Royal College of Physicians’ programmes on quality and patient safety before taking up his current role. The new unit aims to undertake professional patient safety investigations that do not attribute blame or liability, using investigation principles adapted from aviation and other safety critical industries.