Patient safety at risk - report by MPs shows
07/07/2006
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A report by a House of Commons Select Committee says that patient safety is at risk.
One in ten patients who go into hospital will suffer an injury as a result of a mistake by hospital staff.
The report criticised the National Patient Safety Agency for not doing enough to safeguard patients' safety.
The
Department of Health had set out plans and targets to promote patient safety in their paper - Building a Safer NHS for Patients.
But MPs said that not enough progress had been made towards achieving these targets.
Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, said that one in ten patients admitted to NHS hospitals are unintentionally harmed.
The report criticised the National Patient Safety Agency for not recording incidents and deaths properly.
Under-reporting remains a problem for on average 22% of incidents go unreported, mainly medication errors and incidents leading to serious harm.
Up to half of all incidents might have been avoided if NHS staff had learned lessons from previous ones, said MPs.
Currently £400 million is paid out by the NHS in clinical negligence compensation claims every year, according to available figures.
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