Developing professionalism with IIRSM: Insight from Professor Brian Toft

Professor Brian Toft, Emeritus Professor of Patient Safety at Coventry University, has held several senior advisory positions, including membership of the World Health Organization European Regional Advisory Council on Patient Safety and Healthcare. He was awarded an OBE for services to healthcare in the 2010 Queen’s Birthday honours.

Why did you join IIRSM?

I did my first degree at Lancaster University into the reasons why people and organisations make inadvertent errors, and that leads directly into safety. When I was doing my PhD in 1985, I encountered the IIRSM which looked to be helping people in safety and risk. I joined because I felt it would help increase my professional understanding of risk and safety. When I later completed my PhD, I successfully applied and became one of IIRSM’s early Fellows. I was honoured to be invited to join Council in 1993.

What has changed since?

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 was a significant piece of legislation but was very much about practical steps. Since then, the profession has become more personal, with a focus on areas such as mental health and sexual harassment which were not considered as issues for health and safety professionals. Society has changed a lot and we are moving forward. What has struck me is that you need a very powerful safety culture and without that, no organisation is safe. In 2003, there were 227 work-related fatalities in the UK and deaths have come down by about two-thirds in 20 years. Hopefully the additional focus on the personal aspects may bring this down further.