Hospitals in England have logged a record number of “episodes” of people needing help after a surgical tool has been left inside them following an operation or procedure, according to new data analysis. Blunders involving a “foreign object accidentally left in body during surgical and medical care” led to a record 291 “finished consultant episodes” in 2021/22.
This could include swabs, gauze or even surgical devices, including drill bits. Two decades earlier, in 2001/02, there were 156 of these episodes.
The PA news agency examined more than 20 years of hospital data for England. The lowest number was in 2003/04, when 138 episodes were recorded by clinicians. Last year, the average age of patients with a foreign body left inside them was 57.
