Swab left in patient and wrong eye injected: Dozens of mistakes revealed at hospitals
There have been 110 serious incidents and three 'never events' at the trust which runs Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital and Cannock Chase Hospital in the past year.
These include 29 confidential breaches, 13 delays in diagnosis or treatment, five missed diagnoses and 20 unexpected deaths at the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust between April 2015 and April 2016.
Meanwhile, the three 'never events' involved a swab left inside a patient, a patient who had their chest drained on the wrong side of their body and an opthalmology patient who had the wrong eye injected.
Information revealed in the trust's latest quality report showed there were 11 cases of C.Diff, nine cases of unspecified infection, six cases of sub optimal care, and three drug errors. Other incidents listed included three surgical errors, two cases of MRSA and two of failure to act.
There were single cases of a 12-hour breach, alleged child abuse, outpatient appointment delay, radiation, treatment given without consent, unexpected injury and venous thromoembolism.
There were also 278 reportable incidents, which included 238 pressure ulcers, seven of maternity and 33 slips, trips or falls. As of April this year, there were four investigations overdue.
The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Chief Nursing Officer Cheryl Etches said that despite the figures, the majority of patients are satisfied with the care they receive, and attributed the errors which were recorded to human error and changes in systems or procedures.
She said: "The Trust treats all these incidents and never events very seriously. We are clear that never events should not happen at all.
"The report is evidence of the sound reporting culture that exists at RWT, where staff have the confidence to report matters which enable us to fully investigate why these things happen.
"They could be down to any one of a range of factors, such as human error or a need to change systems or procedures."
She added: "In all of the cases the patients and their families are fully informed and we share all outcomes with them.
"While we are clear that never events should not happen, we would reassure patients that in 2015/16 almost 200,000 specialist procedures were carried out at our hospitals and we welcomed 641,000 outpatient visits at hospitals and in the community.
"Patient satisfaction surveys and our Friends and Family scores show the large majority of them are totally satisfied with the care they receive."
