The Statistics

Fortunately, the vast majority of healthcare mistakes result in little or no harm to the patient. Official estimates of the rate of medical accidents are about 1 in 10 hospital admissions (excluding hospital infections). A number of these go unnoticed and, in many cases the patient is never aware that an error has been made. In a recent survey, a quarter of NHS Trusts admitted to not routinely informing patients of such mistakes.

However, not all incidents are inconsequential. It has been estimated that up to 20,000 avoidable deaths occur each year in England alone. In contrast to this figure, less than 6,000 people choose to, or are able to, pursue a claim in negligence and approximately half of these are unsuccessful. There is evidence to suggest that the number of claims will reduce further due to difficulties in funding litigation.

Published 26/04/2007.