Patient safety

List of things that should ‘never happen’ in the NHS extended to 25

Trusts guilty of causing severe harm by allowing ‘never events’ to happen will face “powerful financial disincentives” in a government push to tackle substandard care.

It has extended the list of NHS ‘never events’ from eight to 25, and will now include events like:

severe harm/death due to transfusing the wrong type of blood;
severe scalding; and
severe harm/death due to misidentifying patients by failing to use standard wristband identification processes.
‘Never events’ can cut a life unnecessarily short or result in serious impairment, the Department of Health said, and the NHS will still have a statutory requirement to report all serious patient safety incidents to the National Reporting and Learning System and to the Care Quality Commission.

Last year, there were 111 reported ‘never events’ and medical errors are estimated to cost the NHS around £2bn a year.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “‘Never events’ will be enshrined in the NHS Standard Contract, meaning that payment from GPs or other commissioners will be withheld where care falls short of the acceptable standard. The measures will help to protect patients and give commissioners the power to take action if unacceptable mistakes do happen.”

NHS Medical Director, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, said: “The extended list includes avoidable incidents with serious adverse consequences for patients. No-one wants these to happen, therefore we should not have to pay hospitals when these events occur. This will send a strong signal to leaders of the organisation to learn from their mistakes so they don't happen again.”

Although the list of events has been set nationally, local commissioners will decide to what extent they will recover the costs of care associated with a ‘never event’. Commissioners will be able to cap the amount recovered if they choose to.

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