Many hospitals fail to report errors

13 Mar 2009

Some NHS trusts are not reporting errors made by medical staff to the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA).

The Agency has just published data that shows some NHS trusts seemingly not making a single mistake.

Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of the NHS, said: “The reality is that there is low reporting of incidents from trusts. Some trusts aren’t reporting anything. It means they don’t think they have any incidents or they don’t value a national learning system.”

The NPSA has been gathering data on errors since 2003 however this is the first time they have published the data on individual trusts. They have seen a huge increase in the number of errors reported, but some trusts are still failing to let the NPSA know of mistakes.

65% of the incidents reported did not result in any harm to the patient, while less than 1% were regarded as severe.

Katherine Murphy of the Patients Association said: “Patients need local information on which to base their treatment choices. It needs to be in an easily understandable and accessible form or patients cannot give truly informed consent and make comparisons.”

Georgina Sheldon, a medical negligence solicitor at Patientlawyers.com, said: "It is absolutely imperative that NHS Trusts are open and honest in their reporting of errors. Without accurate data trusts are not able to learn from mistakes and commit to improving standards and patients cannot make informed choices about their treatment options."

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