THE NHS Trust responsible for sites such as Leighton Hospital has had a second never event in less than six months.
A never event is a preventable patient safety incident which should not have happened if all protocols were in place.
Mid Cheshire NHS Trust had none of these incidents in the 14 months between March of last year and May of this year. In contrast it had two of these incidents in the two months immediately prior to this period in January 2024 and February 2024.
A more than year-long patient safety streak was at an end when there was an incident in June of this year.
And, according to the agenda of a meeting last month, there was another incident in October of this year.
Mid Cheshire NHS Trust does not comment on the cases so the nature of the never events is not known.
Among some of the more common examples are surgeries on the wrong part of the body, or the wrong patient, and surgeries where an object is left inside a patient post-procedure.
Meanwhile some of the less common examples are of patients falling between the bed and the bed rails, becoming entrapped, and of patients falling from poorly-restricted windows.
NHS England's most recent Never Events Policy and Framework says: "Each never event has the potential to cause serious harm or death.
"However, serious harm or death does not need to have happened as a result of the incident for the incident to be categorised as a never event."
In total there were more than 400 never events across the country in the last full financial year including at nearby NHS Trusts such as Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Liverpool University NHS Foundation Trust; Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust; and Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
For information on never events go to www.england.nhs.uk/publication/never-events/.
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