The National
Audit Office have recently submitted their findings following a survey
into general standards of care across the NHS. Some rather frightening
statistics were presented.
Official report
on Health Service blunders
November 2005
About 980,000 patient safety "incidents"
and near misses were reported in the NHS, the National Audit Office
reported.
The numbers could be higher as it is
suspected that many cases went unreported. The government said
while the majority of mistakes were minor it was important the NHS learned
from them.
The cost of the mistakes to the NHS was estimated to be
£2bn a year in lost bed days on top of the costs of litigation, according
to the NAO.
The survey of 99% of NHS trusts revealed there were 2,081
deaths reported from April 2004 to March 2005 - more than double the 840
figure given by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) in July.
Sources:
BBC -
National Audit
Office -
Dept of
Health
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