No major surgical errors at hospital in the last five years

Monday 04 April 2016

Horror stories about errors in surgical theatres may be a common theme in the UK national press, but stats revealed by Jersey’s Health department show that the Island’s team of surgeons are a cut above the rest.

Details released by the Health department show that the last five years have seen no incidents where operations have been performed on the wrong limb or body part, where the wrong procedure has been performed, where foreign objects have been left inside patients, or where major errors have been made during operations.

The figures were revealed in response to a request filed under Freedom of Information Laws.

In their response, the department pointed to a clean bill of health.

They wrote: “There have been no cases of wrong site surgery performed on patients.

“There have been no cases of wrong surgery performed on patients.

“There have been no incidents of foreign objects having been left inside patients after operations.

“The term ‘mistakes’ is non-specific and does not lend itself to search parameters.

“For the purpose of this question it has been translated into ‘incidents which were not as a result of recognised complications of surgery that resulted in life-changing or life-threatening incidents’. There have been no such incidents within the last five years.”