Operations on wrong body parts and surgical gloves left behind among 400 'never events' reported by NHS over last year
NHS England figures show there were over 400 “never events” over the last year - preventable incidents considered so serious they should never happen
NHS patients have been harmed due to errors that should never happen, including operations on the wrong body part and surgical gloves and swabs left behind after procedures, new data shows.
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Annual figures from NHS England show there were 403 “never events” for the year April 2025 to March this year. These are patient safety incidents that are so serious they should never happen and are preventable.
In the latest data, some 166 incidents related to wrong-site surgery, including 17 people who had a procedure intended for another patient, 40 where treatments were to the wrong side or part of the body, and eight cases where the procedure was not part of the surgical plan.
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In one case, a patient had an organ or body part removed when the plan had been to conserve it, and there were four other cases where the patient had the wrong procedure altogether.
Six people suffered incisions to the wrong part of the body and 30 other injections were put in the wrong place.
Some 38 patients had nerve blocks given on the wrong side and 22 had the wrong skin lesion removed or had the incorrect biopsy.
Overall, 121 of the never events related to foreign objects being left in patients after procedures or surgery, including two cases of cotton wool balls, 26 of guide wires, one nasal pack and one of a central catheter line.
Two cases involved surgical gloves, 22 were surgical instruments, five were surgical needles, 21 were surgical swabs and 32 were vaginal swabs.
Some 50 never events overall involved the wrong implant or prosthesis, including four cases relating to hips, six to intrauterine contraceptive devices, 14 to knees and nine to eye lenses.
A further 17 cases involved administration of medication by the wrong route, including 15 cases where oral medication was given intravenously.
Another 14 patients suffered an overdose of insulin, mostly involving the wrong syringes, while nine patients were given the wrong blood type.
A further three cases involved falls from poorly restricted windows, two patients suffered scalds or burns from water being too hot and one patient was connected to air rather than oxygen.
The total number of 403 incidents for the year is the same as the previous year.
An NHS spokesperson said: “NHS staff work exceptionally hard to keep patients safe and incidents like these are extremely rare, but when they do occur NHS trusts are required to investigate what has happened and take effective steps to learn from them and make improvements.”