How 3,500 hospital patients lost their lives due to surgical errors or staff who were too busy to treat them... in just TWELVE months

• Surgical errors of busy staff causes 25 percent fatality hike
  
• Heart tsar accuses hospital of waiting lists cover-up
• Paramedics warn that closing A&E departments risk lives
  

By Stephen Adams

Published: 17:03 EST, 9 November 2013 | Updated: 17:03 EST, 9 November 2013

More than 3,500 people died unnecessarily in NHS hospitals last year because of mistakes and blunders, shocking new figures reveal.

The number of ‘avoidable’ deaths admitted by NHS trusts in England rose by 25 per cent in a year, while experts warned ‘toxic overcrowding’ could contribute to even more fatalities in overstretched hospitals this winter.

The figures include cases where patients have died after being given the wrong medicines, have suffered fatal surgical mistakes or simply died because staff failed to spot they were deteriorating fast.

Hundreds more vulnerable patients under mental health care have taken their own lives.

The new figures, from the National Reporting and Learning System, show the number of patients who died due to safety incidents rose from 2,864 in 2011/12 to 3,588 in 2012/13.

Thousands more were reported as suffering harm while in hospital.

With the NHS braced for what many believe will be its toughest winter ever, medical experts fear there will be even more serious ‘patient safety incidents’ in the coming year.

Leading A&E doctor Clifford Mann said official figures showed emergency departments were ten per cent busier than last year, presenting a risk of ‘toxic overcrowding’.

‘If it’s overcrowded, the quality of care suffers. Worse than that, mortality rates rise,’ said Dr Mann, president of the College of Emergency Medicine.

‘If a doctor is dealing with six patients when they might normally deal with four, they will not be able to review their patients as regularly.’

Paramedics have warned that closing A&E; departments is costing lives because it forces them to resuscitate patients in ambulances

Overcrowding could also lead to patients being discharged because there were no beds available, Dr Mann added, resulting in them dying due to a lack of medical attention.

Peter Walsh, chief executive of the charity Action Against Medical Accidents, said ‘obvious’ blunders like medicine errors and surgical mistakes claimed lives but less obvious faults could also be fatal.

‘It could be something as simple as letting a bedsore develop, which becomes infected,’ he said. Sometimes staff are so busy, they failed to realise a patient is going downhill until too late, he added.

Howard Catton, of the Royal College of Nursing added that there was now ‘a solid evidence base’ that not having enough nurses on wards ‘increases the risk of things like medical errors, pressure sores and patients having trips and falls’.

Dr Alistair Douglas, president of the Society of Acute Medicine, said: ‘Hospitals are already very close to being full to bursting. Every day doctors are hoping more patients will leave than need to come in – but that doesn’t always happen.’

Errors in acute hospital trusts account for almost half reported deaths, with 1,463 dying due to safety incidents, up 10 per cent. At Croydon Health Services NHS Trust in South London, 66 died. Second was Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, with 44 deaths.

Yet neither was included in last summer’s review of hospital trusts with high death rates, led by NHS medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh.

Paramedic Alan Bush quit his job five months after Newark A&E; in Nottinghamshire closed

In fact, none of the 10 hospital trusts where the most patients died last year due to blunders were part of the Keogh Review, raising the possibility watchdogs are missing problem hospitals.

However, the Care Quality Commission did recently give both Croydon and Nottingham ‘high risk’ ratings, and results of intensive new inspections will be published soon.

Deaths due to mistakes at mental health trusts showed the biggest annual rise, from 1,285 to 1,909. However, that was largely due to new reporting rules stating all suicides of patients should be classed as safety incidents.

Commenting on the figures, Dr Mike Williams, a former hospital chief executive who lectures at Exeter University, said: ‘I think it’s just the tip of the iceberg.’

Hospital managers are now legally obliged to report all incidents leading to severe harm or death.

But Dr Williams said in many places a culture of not owning up remains. ‘What is recorded is just a small amount of what happens,’ he said.

Dr Frances Healey, associate director of patient safety at NHS England, argued the increasing number of fatal safety incidents was the result of better reporting.

She added it was impossible to compare trusts because they still reported the figures in different ways.

The Croydon trust said its figures on fatal patient safety incidents were ‘inaccurate and inconsistent with the true picture of care’.

Paramedics have warned that closing A&E departments is costing lives because it forces them to resuscitate patients in ambulances.

They said they struggle to perform life-saving CPR as they are flung around inside speeding ambulances diverted to other hospitals.

Alan Bush, 60, who was a paramedic for 30 years, quit five months after Newark A&E in Nottinghamshire closed.

NHS bosses had ordered Mr Bush to drive heart attack and stroke victims to hospitals such as King’s Mill near Mansfield, 23 miles away. He said: ‘It was one reason why I quit. The closure put patients at risk.’

Stressing the difficulties of performing CPR inside ambulances, he added: ‘Sometimes, I’ve fallen on the floor and injured myself.

It’s always better to do CPR on a hospital flat bed than in an ambulance.’
NHS figures, from a Freedom of Information request, show that in 2008 the number of patients from Newark who died on their way to King’s Mill was seven.

In 2011, when Newark A&E closed down, the so-called dead-on-arrival figures increased to 11. By 2012 the number had jumped to 12.

Dr Clive Peedell, of the National Health Action Party, said: ‘If you close down A&E wards, more people will die on their way to hospital.’

A spokesman for Newark and Sherwood Clinical Commissioning Group said: ‘If patients are gravely ill they are taken to the hospital with the facilities that best serves their needs.’