Mr Rob Bethune

Mr Rob Bethune is a highly respected Colorectal Consultant Surgeon at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, as well as a senior lecturer in Healthcare Leadership at Exeter Medical School. His clinical practice centres on laparoscopic surgery, particularly the operative management of inflammatory bowel disease. He also treats a wide range of general colorectal and peri-anal conditions, including hernias, haemorrhoids and complex anal pathology, offering both laparoscopic and open surgical approaches.

After a formative year working as a surgeon in a rural mission hospital in Zambia, he paused his surgical training to join the South West Strategic Health Authority as a healthcare manager. During this time, he helped coordinate a 17-hospital safety collaborative focused on raising peri-operative standards across the region. His passion for patient safety and system improvement continues in his role as clinical lead for the quality improvement team in Exeter.

Mr Bethune has contributed substantially to the understanding of human factors in clinical practice. His master’s thesis explored the impact of pre-operative briefings and debriefings on surgical team performance, and he later joined the UK Department of Health’s Human Factors Steering Group. He has published widely on patient safety, team communication, human factors and quality improvement, and is recognised for his ability to bridge frontline clinical experience with evidence-based system change.