Every day thousands of patients are treated on the NHS and place their trust and confidence in those medical professionals treating them. Most of the time, the treatment received is uneventful. However sometimes, preventable errors known as ‘Never Events’ can occur.
NHS Improvement defines Never Events as serious medical errors that should not happen to a patient if national guidelines and safety recommendations are followed by healthcare providers.
They cover a range of medical incidents including, wrong site surgery when a procedure is performed on the wrong patient or on the wrong part of the body, retained foreign objects such as instruments or swabs being left in the body following an operation, the insertion of a wrong implant or prosthesis requiring further surgery and administration of medication, feed or oxygen by the wrong route.
The impact of Never Events can have permanent and serious life-changing consequences to a patient, or even death. Even when the physical complications of a Never Event are less serious, the psychological consequences can still be significant.
In early 2018, the NHS introduced a revised Never Events policy and framework. NHS providers are required to monitor the occurrence of Never Events within the services they provide and publicly report them on an annual basis. Any organisation that reports a Never Event is expected to conduct its own investigations so it can learn from these mistakes and prevent future harm.
However, there remains concern over the consistently high numbers of Never Events. Between April 2017 and March 2018, there were 469 Never Event incidents reported.
At Jackson Lees, we have experience in dealing with Never Event cases. Recent examples included a feeding tube being inserted into a patient’s lung rather than being fed into their stomach, implantation of the wrong lens following cataract surgery and extraction of the wrong teeth.
Whilst the NHS has already taken steps to understand and address the problems that have contributed to Never Events there still appears to be much to do. Last year, the Care Quality Commission was asked by the government to review these issues. With mounting pressures in the NHS, there is an indication that clinical autonomy is currently being prioritised at the expense of patient safety. Universal operating procedures are therefore being considered for clinician’s to try and cut the number of Never Event mistakes. A report is expected in October 2018.
By creating a culture of safety through best practice, NHS providers will help prevent or reduce Never Events and improve overall the quality of healthcare. It will also help to save precious healthcare resources.
If you or a loved one has been affected by substandard medical treatment which has resulted in a Never Event, you may be able to claim medical negligence compensation to help you move on from this mistake and put your life back together. Please request a call back or send us a message today.