Shocking doctor’s blunders from wrong cancer diagnosis to wrongful removal of testicle

UK: A patient died after being given the wrong type of blood and another had a testicle removed unnecessarily – just two of the shocking NHS blunders uncovered by the Daily Mirror.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said six mistakes like these are happening in hospitals every week.

They are called “never events” – because they are so bad they should never happen.

And our probe under the Freedom of Information Act exposes some of the shocking details for the first time.

In one case a patient was told they had cancer and had part of their nose chopped off by mistake, while a second was wrongly told they didn’t have cancer.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: “As suggested by the name, these sorts of events are utterly unacceptable and pose a huge risk to patient safety and well-being.

“While we accept accidents will sometimes occur, it is vital that lessons are learnt each time to ensure they aren’t repeated.

“This is yet another reminder of the need to properly fund the regulation of healthcare to ensure that it detects patterns of errors such as these, and acts to ensure that no more patients are put at risk.”

Roger Goss, director of Patient Concern, said: “If the concept is to achieve a reduction in harm to patients, staff responsible for these never events should be fired. That is what would happen in the private sector. Unfortunately, getting rid of anyone from the NHS, however careless or incompetent, is virtually impossible.”

The number of never events rose to 338 last year and Mr Hunt has warned up to 12,500 patients die needlessly every year on NHS wards because of blunders by staff.

Dr Mike Durkin, director of patient safety at NHS England, said: “One never event is one too many in any week, in any day, in any hospital. We are determined to make the NHS the safest healthcare system in the world and are working hard to identify practical ways to eradicate never events.”

All the incidents highlighted happened between April and November 2014.

WRONG NOSE:

A test results mix-up meant one patient was told they had cancer and had part of their nose chopped off by mistake, while a second was wrongly told they didn’t have cancer. Both people had skin lesions and underwent biopsies in the same hospital. But their samples were “put into the wrong pots”.

WRONG BLOOD:

A patient died after being given the wrong blood type during a blood transfusion. The NHS dossier revealed an investigation into the incident had discovered the blood used in the procedure had been “intended for another patient”. The report added: “The patient subsequently died.”

WRONG BIOPSY:

While waiting for an appointment for cataract surgery, a patient was instead given a skin biopsy. The mistake happened because two NHS units, an eye clinic and a dermatology clinic, shared the same waiting room. The patient went to the skin consultation when they thought their name had been called.

WRONG TESTICLE:

A surgeon was scheduled to remove a cyst from a patient’s testicle but ended up accidentally taking out the whole testicle. An NHS dossier revealed the surgeon then dumped the item in a bin. It was only when staff retrieved the testicle, and it was sent for analysis, that the blunder was discovered.