I read a statistic that nearly a million lapses in patient safety were recorded in 2004/5. The article referred to in the National Audit Office report which I understand was published in November last year. This statistic seems shocking. Is it correct?
Yes, this statistic is correct. A report carried out by the National Audit Office last year found that there was about 980,000 patient safety incidents and "near misses" reported in the NHS from April 2004 to March 2005. It went on to say that 2081 deaths were reported during the same period due to lapses in patient safety. The report indicated that many incidents were not reported and said the figures could be even higher.
The study revealed that approximately half of the incidents in which a patient was unintentionally harmed, could well have been avoided had the hospitals taken heed of previous incidents. The cost of these mistakes was estimated to be £2 billion a year-this was made up of lost bed days together with the costs of litigation.
Patient safety incidents include medication errors, equipment defects and patient accidents, such as falls. "Near misses” are patient safety errors which are narrowly avoided.
The Public Accounts Committee were commenting on the findings of the National Audit Office investigation and this was in the press last week. The Public Accounts Committee indicated that nearly 25% of incidents and 39% of "near misses” go unreported.
It found one in 10 patients are estimated to be unintentionally harmed under the care of the health service. They went on to add that only 24% of hospital trusts routinely inform patients involved in a reported incident and 6% of trusts do not involve patients at all.
The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) was set up to develop a reporting scheme for the NHS to learn from previous safety lapses. Whilst this was attacked in the National Audit Office report for failing to provide enough advice on improving safety, it was also found that many hospital trusts were not complying with safety alert issued by the NPSA.
It is concerning to see that despite the introduction of the NPSA five years ago and stricter reporting requirements (of patient safety incidents), the number of lapses continue to be so high.
I consider it extremely important for any NHS body to be made aware of lapses in patient safety. Therefore if you believe you have not been treated appropriately, or one of your relatives or friends has been subject to a lapse in care, then you must either complain to the NHS body or call me to discuss the possibility of a legal claim. The more the NHS is made aware of patient concerns, the more they can do to put in place a better system of health care for the public.
