Instances of objects being wrongly left in patients' bodies and surgery being carried out in the wrong place at hospitals across Nottingham have dramatically risen. The incidents, known as never events, have increased across the city and county, as shown by a recent NHS report.
A never event is a mistake so serious it should never happen. Ten were recorded across Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022 - a rise of eight on the previous year.
Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH), the trust which runs the hospitals, had one of the worst rates in England, narrowly coming joint-second to Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (11). The most common mistake at NUH was wrong site surgery, where an operation is either carried out on the wrong person or wrong part of a person - this happened five times.
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There were also four cases of retained foreign objects after a procedure and one case of administration of medication by the wrong route. Elsewhere, Sherwood Forest Hospitals (SFH), which runs hospitals across Mansfield, Sutton and Newark, recorded five never events - the highest level in years.
The trust saw four instances of wrong site surgery and one foreign object left in a body. NUH says it takes the incidents "very seriously". A spokesperson said: “We treat over a million patients a year and while these events are extremely rare, we take them very seriously and investigate every incident.
"The safety of our patients is one of our top priorities, which is why if something does go wrong, we share learning across the workforce to improve services for patients.” Robin Binks, interim chief nurse at SFH, said: “Sherwood Forest Hospitals is committed to delivering the best possible care to the tens of thousands of patients we come into contact with each year and we know that a single event of this kind is one too many.
“When these incidents do occur, we work with the patients and families affected as well as our hard-working staff to understand what went wrong, ensure they are all properly supported, learn lessons for the future and consider how we can further improve the care we provide.”
Across the country 407 never events were recorded, including 98 cases of a foreign object being left inside a patient. Vaginal swabs were left in patients 32 times and surgical swabs were left 21 times. Some of the other objects left inside patients included part of a pair of wire cutters, part of a scalpel blade, and the bolt from surgical forceps.
