82 People Undergo To 'Wrong-Site' Operations In 2008

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6a00e553c58ee588330120a557a4b5970c 800wi 82 People Undergo Wrong Site Operations In 2008 In the year 2008-09, around 82 patients were operated on body parts that didn’t need operating, in lieu of the parts that actually did. And all this due to the NHS blunders. Along with this, it has been reported that foreign objects that include several surgical instruments were ‘accidentally’ left inside the patient’s body in the year 2008-09. The same report also said that nine or more of these ‘foreign objects’ incident were recorded in the NHS England trusts itself, whereas other trusts could not even come up an exact figure of their mishaps. It was only a year ago, in the month of Nov, 2008 that UK newspapers had reported 15 cases where during brain operations, the holes were drilled on the wrong side of the brain, a fact that was duely noticed by the the National Patient Safety Agency. Even before that, in the year 2007, wrong site operations were carried out and included implanting hearing aides in the wrong ear, removal of the wrong foot, wrong knee replacement, cochlear implants etc. They made up a total of 16 cases. 2007 was perhaps the worst year for patients, with 1136 ‘recorded’ errors- which involved worn site operations, mistaken surgery, medicating wrong patients, operating list mishaps etc.

These incidents took place even after the CMO or the Chief Medical Officer- Sir Liam Donaldson had said earlier that such ‘wrong site surgery’ should never take place and that if they do the hospitals could have to bear the brunt of the penalties. However, to ensure that such blunders are kept in check, the WHO or World Health Organization has come up with a plan. Similar to “pre-flights checks”, a “surgical checklist” will be drawn up, so as to maintain proper communication among the concerned personnel in order to ‘eliminate errors’. This checklist has already been adopted by several number of NHS trusts. Among these blunders, was the case of a Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust’s patient, 22, who had to suffer the draining of the wrong abscess even after the so-called safety measure of the WHO checklist was undertaken by the authorities. And all this after the fact that at least one among 8 resident of Britain undergoes surgery every year.

The overall HSMRs or hospital standardized mortality ratios may have decreased last year by seven percent but then too 5024 lost their lives in the hospital even though they were all low-risk cases.

“Over the last nine years of the Hospital Guide we have seen a steady improvement in hospital performance but unacceptable variation between hospitals still exists. Dr Foster will continue to publish data in order to provide information to the public, drive improvement in patient care and save lives.” said Roger Taylor who is a co-founder of the hospital Dr Foster. “Hospital trusts should use the Guide to carefully investigate where problems exist, even those who have performed well. Patients and the public should use the Hospital Guide to help make choices about where they want to be treated, to ask the right questions of their health professionals and to hold hospitals to account.”