NHS safety alerts jump by a quarter in six months
Latest figures show the number of reported safety alerts involving NHS patients has risen sharply, with nearly 500,000 incidents in six months with 473,162 incidents were reported between April and September last year, compared with 379,345 in the same period in 2008.
The agency said that the year-on-year rise of nearly 25 per cent was positive because increased reporting meant that lessons could be learnt and patterns identified.
The number of incidents which resulted in death across England has decreased from 1,856 to 1,160. Cases that resulted in severe harm to the patient also fell from 3,643 to 2,412.
However, campaigners say that the level of avoidable mistakes is still unacceptably high.
The most commonly reported incidents were accidents involving patients, such as slips, trips and falls, which accounted for nearly 155,000 reports, a third of the total. But there were nearly 51,000 cases of medication errors — such as administering the wrong type or dose of drug — and a similar number of delayed or wrong-site procedures.
Under a new system of NHS regulation that begins next month, hospitals and health authorities could face fines or possible closure if they fail to report anonymised details of “serious incidents” to the NPSA. They are not obliged by law to provide details of such events to injured patients or their next of kin.
The campaign group Action Against Medical Accidents (AvMA) has renewed calls for a legal duty of candour to apply to all trusts, to ensure patients and relatives are given full details if they are harmed.
Peter Walsh, chief executive of AvMA, said: “How can people have faith in a system that puts collecting data before being open with patients? We are not saying that the Government intended to legitimise cover-ups of medical accidents, but that is the effect. One would have thought that recent scandals such as Mid Staffordshire Hospital would have underlined the need to tackle the culture of cover-up and denial.”
Katherine Murphy, director of the Patients Association, said: “We welcome the increased reporting, but it is appalling that after constant pressure and now even plans to make reporting mandatory, that some organisations are still not reporting incidents sufficiently. Patient safety is supposed to be a priority and yet some trusts don’t even seem able to comply with basic recommendations about reporting. It raises the question of whether the managers at those organisations really are committed to patient safety.”
Nicola Gaukroger, a medical negligence solicitor from Reading based law firm Boyes Turner said: “It is good to see that hospitals are increasingly reporting serious untoward incidents. This corresponds with the greater emphasis in recent years on hospitals identifying errors and learning from them.
Still a culture change needs to occur so that not only are incidents reported to the National Patient Safety Agency, but also to patients themselves. A client recently approached us after his new born baby was born in extremely poor condition and had a very severe brain injury. For the first few days of his life, the hospital was adamant that the care provided during delivery, was entirely appropriate and that no investigations would be taking place. It was only after the family contacted us that they learned that the hospital has a duty to investigate to determine whether their baby's birth injuries were avoidable. An investigation is now taking place.
Our clients often say that had the doctors been more honest with them, and admitted that a medical accident had occurred, they would not have felt the need to seek approach a medical negligence solicitor.
Consistent with our policy when giving comment and advice on a non-specific basis, we cannot assume legal responsibility for the accuracy of any particular statement. In the case of specific problems we recommend that professional advice be sought.
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