I deal with medical negligence cases and quite frequently they are very complicated medically. However I was appalled to read the 750 ‘should never happen blunders’ that have been published recently. These blunders illustrate how patients have suffered as a result of preventable mistakes in England’s hospitals over the past four years. These look like straightforward cases of medical negligence. The incidents have been described as being so serious they should never have happened at all. They are preventable as guidance has already been issued in relation to these procedures to explain how risks and harm to patients can be prevented.
The NHS has commented and admitted that the figures were too high and has confirmed that they had introduced new measures to ensure patient safety was paramount.
The BBC completed a Freedom of Information request to disclose these incidents and 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 feeding tubes, being inserted into lungs by mistake; and 58 cases of wrong implants or prostheses being fitted.
It is very worrying that in this day and age that plastic tubes, hypodermic needles and surgical implements can be left inside patients turning a routine operation into a nightmare.
