From Surgery to Patient Safety: Culture, Learning and Leadership with Aidan Fowler

Welcome to The Connection: Where Tech Meets Humanity in Healthcare podcast, brought to you by RLDatix. In this live episode from Patient Safety Congress, Liz Jones and Darren Kilroy are joined by Aidan Fowler, National Director of Patient Safety at NHS England. Aidan shares his journey from colorectal surgeon to patient safety leader, discusses the cultural evolution of healthcare safety, and explores why effective teamwork begins with integrated education. 👉 At RLDatix, we understand that health and care is a complex landscape where technology must work hand-in-hand with human expertise. In our podcast, we explore how our commitment to safety and operational efficiency can improve the daily experiences of health and care professionals while keeping patient safety at the core of everything we do. 🎉 To find out more, visit rldatix.com 🏥

Welcome to The Connection: Where Tech Meets Humanity in Healthcare podcast, brought to you by RLDatix. In this engaging live episode from Patient Safety Congress, Liz Jones and Darren Kilroy are joined by Aidan Fowler, National Director of Patient Safety at NHS England. Aidan brings a unique perspective to patient safety, having transitioned from practising colorectal surgeon to leading national initiatives focused on learning, improvement and culture.

What You'll Learn:

How Aidan's surgical background and family's legal tradition shaped his approach to patient safety
Why healthcare culture has evolved from normalising errors to actively preventing them
The "light bulb moment" when teams realised avoidable harm doesn’t have to happen
How siloed education creates barriers to effective teamwork in clinical practice
Why maternity care exemplifies the need for integrated multi-professional collaboration
The importance of moving from reactive, bureaucratic safety processes toward proactive, learning cultures
How public value should drive healthcare decision-making and change initiatives
Why self-improving service lines embedded in governance structures are the future of quality

Aidan Fowler currently serves as National Director of Patient Safety at NHS England, leading initiatives to strengthen safety culture and improve practice across the health service. His journey from the operating theatre to national leadership demonstrates how clinical experience combined with improvement science can drive meaningful systemic change.

👉 At RLDatix, we understand that health and care is a complex landscape where technology must work hand-in-hand with human expertise. In our podcast, we explore how our commitment to safety and operational efficiency can improve the daily experiences of health and care professionals while keeping patient safety at the core of everything we do. 🎉

To find out more, visit rldatix.com 🏥