New report highlights spate of NHS ‘never events’

A new investigation has revealed that so-called 'never events' remain a frequent occurrence among NHS hospitals in England, despite extensive efforts to prevent them.

According to data from BBC News, more than 750 patients have suffered from these preventable errors – which are categorised by the Department of Health as being so serious that they should never happen – in the last four years.

The most common of these mistakes was leaving surgical equipment inside patients, which accounted for 322 of the incidents, with other common errors including operating on the wrong site, placing feeding tubes incorrectly and inserting incorrect implants or prostheses.

Dr Mike Durkin, director of patient safety for NHS England, said: "We need to understand what it is, in some systems and in some hospitals, that [means that] team working hasn't produced an effective outcome and a never event has occurred."

The current government has made a number of events to address this issue, such as tripling the number of categories that are defined as a never event from eight to 25 in 2011.