Smith & Nephew PLC Q2 2019 Earnings Call Summary

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Thomas M. Jones - Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, Research Division - Analyst : I have 3 hopefully not too long ones. The first one, and apologies if I missed this because I missed the first 10 minutes of the call, but the Wound Care business, if you could give us any color on when you might expect that business to return to a positive growth rate, that will be helpful. Again, apologies if you've already said it, but I missed it. Second question, Namal, just wondering how you're thinking about the Bioventus JV at the moment. It sort of sits there. It's not an insignificant business in value terms, but it doesn't really do much for your P&L and it doesn't really get much if you look in from an investor perspective either. So just wondering whether the -- what your thoughts are on that and whether the capital could be better put to use elsewhere in the business. And then the last question which is a bit of a bigger one, for those of us that have followed Smith+ Nephew long enough, we've seen good periods of growth. But then the old adage, "3 steps forward, 2 steps back", kicks in and something goes wrong somewhere. It's pretty clear to us as observers that we can see all the things that are going well and all the positive changes you've made. But I think it would certainly help us and investors get a bit more comfort that this growth is sustainable if you could give us a little bit more color on what you've done around risk management about how you've maybe changed the business in ways that prevents some of the slip-ups that have always stymied Smith+ Nephew's growth in the long term in the past from happening again. I know it's a bit of a -- sort of an intangible question, but it does weigh on the investors' minds. We're seeing these good growth coming through and lots of people are starting to ask, "When is the next slip-up coming and what have they done to prevent that happening?"