NHS left drill bits in patients as trusts reveal 407 screw ups

DRILL bits and wire cutters are just some of the objects that have been left inside hospital patients by mistake, as the NHS records an increasing number of “never events”.

Some 407 “never events” – incidents so serious they should never happen – were recorded in the NHS in England from April 2021 until March 2022. That is the equivalent of nearly eight every week, and is an increase from the same period the year before, which had 364.

Among the incidents were 98 cases of objects being left inside a patient after a procedure.

Vaginal swabs were left inside patients 32 times and surgical swabs on 21 occasions. Some of the other objects included part of a pair of wire cutters, part of a scalpel blade, and the bolt from surgical forceps. On three occasions over the year, part of a drill bit was left inside a patient.

Other never incidents included a woman who had her ovaries removed by mistake when the plan was to conserve them, while six patients had injections to the wrong eye.

Hip implants on the wrong side were undergone 12 times, incorrect knee implants happened 11 times, and patients were connected to air instead of oxygen on 13 different occasions.

The wrong blood was transfused for seven people and one patient had a procedure to their breast that they had not consented to.

Overall, there were 171 cases of wrong site surgery – operations performed on the wrong body part, side of the body, or patient.