Investigations take place after serious mistakes at three Northamptonshire hospitals

Investigations are being carried out after serious mistakes were made at three Northamptonshire hospitals within the past three months.
Three Northamptonshire hospitals recorded never events in October.Three Northamptonshire hospitals recorded never events in October.
Three Northamptonshire hospitals recorded never events in October.

Kettering General, Woodlands and Northampton General all reported ‘never events’ in October.

Never events are classified by the NHS as serious incidents that should have not occurred and were preventable.

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At the private Woodlands Hospital off the A14 near Rothwell a wrong site surgery was reported in which pain relief was given to the wrong part of the body before a procedure.

The NHS-run Kettering General Hospital incident involved a foreign object being retained in the patient’s body after the procedure.

At Northampton General Hospital the incident involved a wrong site surgery.

All of the incidents were detailed in the latest board report of the Corby Clinical Commissioning group.

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The report said: “The CCGs will follow up on actions through the established quality assurance routes.”

Kettering General Hospital Director of Nursing and Quality Leanne Hackshall said: “The trust has investigated an incident initially reported as a potential never event.

“The decision whether this meets the never event criteria currently sits with our commissioners.

“There was no patient harm and the patient involved has received an apology and will receive the full investigation report.

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“It would be inappropriate to comment further on the incident for reasons of patient confidentiality.”

A spokesman for NGH said: “We can confirm that a never event occurred at Northampton General Hospital in October 2018.

“A never event is the name given to a serious incident which if all safety protocols are followed should be preventable.

“Although this type of incident is rare, we recognise that a never event is completely unacceptable.

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“We have conducted a full review of this incident and due to patient confidentiality we cannot give any further details, however we can confirm that plans have been put into place and lessons learned to prevent this type of incident occurring again.”

A spokesman for Woodlands Hospital, which is run by Ramsay Healthcare, said: "A thorough internal investigation is currently being undertaken and is in its early stages. Any issues identified as part of this investigation will be fully actioned. Providing the safest level of care to all our patients remains the utmost priority to Woodland Hospital."

In November provisional data was published by the Government showing there were 294 ‘never events’ across the country between April 1 and October 31 last year.