Ma¯ori less likely to report harm

was clinical mismanagement that made up the majority of mistakes, with patients missing out on referrals and being diagnosed late.

Included under clinical management problems were 10 cases around the country where patients had medical equipment left inside their bodies.

The vast majority of mistakes took place in the public sector, with 100 adverse events reported by members of the NZ Private Surgical Hospitals Association.

Total reported events had fallen for the first time since 2011-12, although Hughes said noone should experience preventable harm when they were receiving healthcare.

‘‘The sector should work together to create a safety culture, where people feel able to report harm without fear of being blamed for mistakes, and we can learn from what happened. We must do our best to prevent anyone else from being harmed.’’

The report emphasised that the standard of health care in New Zealand was generally high – in a typical year, there are more than 1 million hospitalisations in public healthcare and only a small number of them end up with a patient suffering a harmful event.

New Zealand’s rate of adverse events in hospital was comparative to countries such as Australia and the UK.

A mother says her bathroom floor has become a familiar place, the shower turned on to drown out the tears she weeps for the loss of her youngest child in a crash caused by a drugged driver.

Kathryn Hickson held back tears until the end of Anaru Woolley’s sentencing in the Palmerston North District Court yesterday. But she broke down after hearing the 27-year-old forestry worker was being jailed for two years and eight months for killing two people and injuring two others while methamphetamine and cannabis were in his blood.

Kevin Hanks, 40, and Macauley Arnott, 13, died when the car they were in collided with Woolley’s on State Highway 2 near the Tui Brewery at