An investigation conducted by the BBC has revealed that more than 750 patients have suffered preventable mistakes in hospitals from 2009.
The Department of Health categorises the incidents, such as leaving instruments inside patients following operations, as “never events”. “Never events” are serious, largely preventable patient safety incidents that should not occur if the available preventable measures have been implemented.
BBC Investigation Into Hospital Errors
The investigation found that there were 322 cases of foreign objects left inside patients during operations; 214 cases of surgery on the wrong body part; 73 cases of tubes which are used for feeding patients or medication being inserted into the lungs of patients; and 58 cases of wrong implants or prosthesis being fitted.
Within University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, 12 “never events” have been reported which included 5 cases of retained foreign objects post-surgery.
NHS England has admitted that the figures are too high and that it had introduced new measures to ensure patient safety.
Director of Patient Safety for NHS England, Dr Mike Durkin, said that the 700 “never events” were “too many” and that NHS England has begun to collate data to help educate staff on better practice. He was reported as saying: “Every single never event is one too many…We need to understand what it is, in some systems and in some hospitals, that that team working hasn’t produced an effective outcome and a mistake, and a ‘never event’ has occurred.”
Each year, there are 4.6 million hospital admissions on average that require surgery. The NHS therefore say that the risk of a “never event” happening to a patient is one in 20,000.
Never events are such serious incidents that it is concerning to learn that so many have occurred over the last 4 years.
It is now vital that the NHS works hard to understand how so many of these unacceptable and preventable incidents have occurred and to ensure that procedures and protocols are seriously reviewed and changed wherever necessary.
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Danielle Young is an Associate in our specialist Medical Negligence team. Contact Danielle or another member of the team on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form and they will be happy to discuss our services with you.