NHS England Reveals That Over 1,000 Patients Have Suffered ‘‘Never Events’’ In The Last Four Years

‘Never events’ are serious, preventable patient safety incidents that should never happen. They include medical incidents such as wrong site surgery; foreign objects being left in patients after surgery; providing wrong implants/prosthetic body parts to patients and wrong route administration of chemotherapy.

Hospital Trusts are required to monitor the occurrence of never events and report on them on an annual basis.

Recent information published by NHS England revealed that more than 1,100 patients have experienced ‘never events’ in the last four years. From April 2015 to the end of December 2015 there were 254 ‘never events’.

Case study: patient suffered foot injury while being prepared for breast cancer surgery.

Medical negligence solicitor at Leigh Day, Suzanne White, recently settled a claim on behalf of a former nurse who suffered a ‘never event’ which left her with a permanently damaged foot.

The nurse, K, had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was admitted to hospital for a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. The procedure lasted ten hours.

When K came round from the operation she felt pain in her left foot and ankle and noticed that the TED stocking on her left leg had been rolled up from her foot to the same level as her ankle. An ID band had been put on her left ankle.

The TED stocking and ID band on her left ankle had acted as a tourniquet during her surgery.

K continued to suffer from pain in her left foot for six months following surgery and was later diagnosed as having suffered from a nerve injury. She suffered from a numb yet burning sensation as well as a feeling of pins and needles in her foot. She was told that she would recover from this.

K’s return to work was delayed, she is now unable to walk as far as she used to, and has abnormal feeling in the sole of her foot.

The NHS has stated that it is committed to preventing such events, some of which can prove to be fatal, happening in the future.

Near misses must be reported and acted upon, and NHS guidance needs to be comprehensive, with provisions put in place to ensure that it is complied with.

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