Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
A woman was given an invasive gynaecological procedure after being mistaken for another patient, a health watchdog has revealed as it warned that more must be done to prevent waiting room mixups.
The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) said such cases were “not isolated” but not widely reported and could lead to physical and psychological harm.
The error was one of 472 serious healthcare incidents reported in England in 2019-20, the HSIB said in a report, nearly half of which were procedures performed on the wrong patient or on the wrong part of the body.
It said a better system of safety measures was needed to make sure patients are not mixed up and given the wrong procedure during outpatient appointments, and it called for the NHS to review patient identification schemes in outpatient settings.
www.theguardian.com
The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) said such cases were “not isolated” but not widely reported and could lead to physical and psychological harm.
The error was one of 472 serious healthcare incidents reported in England in 2019-20, the HSIB said in a report, nearly half of which were procedures performed on the wrong patient or on the wrong part of the body.
It said a better system of safety measures was needed to make sure patients are not mixed up and given the wrong procedure during outpatient appointments, and it called for the NHS to review patient identification schemes in outpatient settings.
Wrong woman given invasive procedure among NHS mixups
Watchdog reports scores of cases of procedures being performed on wrong patient or wrong part of body
www.theguardian.com