Wolverhampton health trust's medical mistakes on the rise
The number of serious incidents at the health trust that runs Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital and Cannock Chase Hospital has risen by almost 13 per cent over the past year.
There have been 124 incidents classed as 'serious' by health chiefs and five 'never events' at the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust between April 2016 and April 2017.
They include 41 confidential breaches, 19 delayed diagnoses or treatments, 11 missed diagnoses and 11 unexpected deaths.
The ‘never events’ – serious and preventable breaches of patient safety – saw two procedures performed on the wrong site, a swab left inside a patient, a foreign object left inside a patient and a wrong artificial body part attached.
This compared with 110 serious incidents in the previous 12 months and three 'never events'.
Information revealed in the health trust’s latest quality report showed that there were nine cases of C.Diff, eight of unspecified infection, six surgical incidents and two drug errors.
There were also 263 reportable incidents, which included 208 pressure ulcers, eight of maternity and 47 slips, trips or falls.
Wolverhampton City Council's health scrutiny panel will discuss the problem at a meeting tomorrow(THUR).
A report to the panel said: "The trust is committed to improving patients’ experiences and outcomes and many of the initiatives are already now making a difference."
