ARE BRITISH NHS FOUL-UPS IN OBAMACARE FUTURE?

Each year, 5,000 British hospital patients suffer from surgeons cutting the wrong part of their bodies, dirty instruments, and surgical paraphernalia left inside their bodies after they’ve been stitched up

British authorities say the foul-ups are ‘relatively rare,’ but tell that to the 5,000 patients who have to return for remedial surgery each year. The question now is, will there be a significant increase in the same foul-ups plaguing patients under Obamacare?

NHS SURGERY BLUNDERS DOUBLE IN A DECADE: 5,000 PEOPLE A YEAR HAVE TO GO BACK TO HOSPITAL BECAUSE OF BUNGLED TREATMENT
Cutting the wrong part of the body and leaving 'foreign objects' inside patients among the reasons for 35,000 people requiring extra operations in the last decade

By Lizzie Parry

Mail Online
December 28, 2013

Surgeons cutting the wrong part of the body, dirty instruments and leaving equipment inside patients during operations has resulted in 35,000 of people needing extra hospital treatment in a decade, it has emerged.

Patients groups have branded the sharp 100 per cent rise in patients being re-admitted to hospital after botched operations, 'shocking and frightening'.

Figures released under Freedom of Information laws, found that in 2012 5,328 people had to be re-admitted to hospital following botched operations.

That figure is a jump from 2,641 patients in 2003.

The main reason given for re-admissions doubling in a decade is 'unintentional cuts, punctures, perforations or haemorrhages' or bleeding.

Patient Concern's Roger Goss told the Daily Mirror: 'The level of NHS mistakes is shocking and frightening.

'We shouldn't have to fear going home with the wrong part of our body mutilated.'

Over the 10-year period a total of 35,000 patients have needed further treatment after blunders of these kinds, but the year-on-year figures have risen from 2,462 in 2003 to 5,139 in 2012.

The number of patients taken back into the operating theatre after surgeons left 'foreign objects' inside their patients has remained the same.

Last year 164 'never' events - dubbed that, due to the serious nature of the incident and fact it should never occur - were recorded by the Department of Health, up from 138 in 2003.

Meanwhile there has been a fall in the number of patients requiring extra treatment because medical teams failed to keep the operating theatre or equipment clean.

Twenty-five incidents relating to dirty theatres or instruments were recorded last year - the lowest on record - compared with 41 in 2003.

Two surgeons, speaking to the Mirror anonymously, said a reason for the rise could be the fact more complex procedures are being carried out in hospitals across the UK, than was the case 10 years ago.

A further explanation put forward is that a campaign towards greater transparency in the NHS as a whole has resulted in a more open culture of reporting mistakes.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: 'Patient safety must be the priority for the NHS and it is unacceptable 'never events' occur. Thankfully, the incidents are relatively rare.'