MORE than half a million patients every year suffer as a result of medical errors or incidents while in NHS hospitals, the first national analysis has shown.

Most of the incidents cause no harm to patients, and only 1 per cent lead to serious injury or death, the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) has found. It estimates that about 840 deaths each year are attributable to such incidents, which include falls, medication errors, faults in treatments or failures in medical devices.

The figure is far smaller than previous estimates of the cost of medical accidents and errors in the NHS, which have ranged as high as 40,000 deaths a year.

Professor Richard Thomson, of the NPSA, said that it was often difficult to be sure of the precise cause of a death and that 840 was almost certainly an underestimate, since many misadventures such as drug side effects were reported to other bodies. He added: “It is inevitable in complex healthcare systems, treating often very sick patients, that sometimes things can and do go wrong.”

The overall figure for adverse incidents occurring in acute hospitals, 572,000 a year, was not very different from previous estimates of 850,000.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Swine flu vaccine for all as drug rushed through
• Artificial sperm and the race to build a baby
• BBC jets out stars to tout for prizes