Much has been said over recent months about the state of the NHS, with there having been reviews such as Lord Darzi report and the Ockenden Review. All are in agreement that substantial change is needed in the NHS to protect those relying upon it but bringing about such change is neither quick nor straightforward.

In the meantime, patients are continuing to suffer avoidable harm. According to the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), analysis of NHS data shows there has been a 30 per cent rise in incidents that caused severe harm or death in the 10 years up to 2022/23. In 2022/23 alone, there were 14,383 such incidents. Severe harm is defined as a permanent injury, including loss of sight or mobility.

Some incidents are caused by specific misconduct by doctors, such as the widely reported rogue surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital, Mr Jabbar, and Mr Paterson, the breast surgeon who subjected more than 1,000 patients to unnecessary and damaging operations and is serving a 20 year prison sentence and subject. Some incidents are caused by systemic issues within the NHS, such as related to staffing issues.

Irrespective of the cause, the frequency of patient safety incidents are immensely concerning and abhorrent, as, every day, on average, 39 patients die or are severely injured because of a patient safety incident.

Such safety incidents would include botched operations; a further, equally shocking statistics is that the number of botched NHS operations has soared by 70% in five years.

Examples of botched operations are:

• Using dirty tools – there were 47 reported incidents of patients being operated upon using equipment that has not been properly sterilised – there is a well reported recent incident whereby a surgeon, being unable to find a sterile scalpel, used a Swiss army knife during surgery at a Brighton Hospital.
• Cutting the wrong part of the body – this occurred on 19,174 occasions last year
• Surgical equipment being left inside the body at the end of the procedure – there were 335 occurrences of this reported last year; this is what is known as a ‘never event’, namely something that should never happen
• Issues with medication – there were 132 occasions last year where complications arose because of patients not being given the correct dosage of medication

If you have suffered injury as a result of a patient safety incident, such as a botched operation, please contact our Medical Negligence Team to discuss how we may be able to assist with investigating and obtaining much needed answers and justice.