Vaginal swabs left inside NHS patients 32 times by mistake

There have been nearly 100 cases of a foreign object being left inside a patient by mistake after surgery in England – including a scalpel blade.

According to new NHS figures , vaginal swabs left in patients 32 times and surgical swabs left 21 times are just a small number of the grim medical blunders.

Some 407 'never events' – things so serious they should never happened – were recorded in public hospitals from April 2021 until March 2022.

This is the equivalent of nearly eight every week and is an increase from the same period the year before, which had 364 in total.

As some investigations in local health trusts are yet to be completed, the number could also see an increase.

Other objects left inside patients included part of a pair of wire cutters, the bolt from surgical forceps, a catheter and a laparoscopic specimen bag, which range from 10 to 15cm.

Meanwhile, one person had their ovaries removed by mistake, while six others had injections to the wrong eye. Overall, there were 171 cases of 'wrong site' surgery.

There were also 47 cases where doctors gave the wrong implant or prosthesis, with one person having an operation on their breast they did not consent to.

While it is rare, seven patients received wrong blood transfusions and there were three cases of falls from poorly restricted windows.

From the perspective of the NHS, millions of procedures are correctly performed every year, but overworked doctors and nurses still slip up occasionally.

With the 'never events', the service tries to acknowledge red flags, not encourage a culture of blame.

According to the data, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust reported the highest number of incidents – 11 in total.

The trust was followed by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and Sandwell and West Birmingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, which both reported 10 in total.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected] .

For more stories like this, check our news page .