From Drill Bits Left Inside Patients to Mistaken Removal of Ovaries: Substantial Increase in ‘Never Events’ Recorded by the NHS
The NHS recorded a substantial increase in ‘Never Events’ between April 2021 and March 2022—including nearly 100 incidents of foreign objects such as scalpel blades, wire cutters, and drill bits being accidentally left inside patients. The official data revealed 407 incidents of medical negligence that are described as “so serious they should never happen” in
‘Never Event’ as Patient Receives Wrong Sized Prosthetic During Surgery at Orthopaedic Hospital in Gobowen
In a case reported by BBC News and other organisations, a patient was accidentally implanted with the wrong prosthetic implant in a ‘Never Event’ at a Shropshire hospital. The event was reported to the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) governing body in September 2021. Surgeons mistakenly implanted a small prosthesis into a
Should Doctors be Recommending Bone and Joint Replacement Operations?
Some newspapers and websites have covered research that, it is suggested, calls into question the value of some orthopaedic surgery. Headlines, such as “Joint surgery may be no more useful than physiotherapy,” might lead people to believe that surgical interventions they have had could have been replaced with physiotherapy or medication. The media attention was
