Overview
- NHS England published annual figures showing 403 never events for the year to March, a category of serious incidents judged entirely preventable.
- The dataset lists 166 wrong-site surgeries, 121 retained foreign objects and about 50 wrong implants or prostheses as the largest categories of error.
- Published breakdowns give concrete examples such as a patient having an organ removed when conservation was intended, 26 guide wires left inside patients and 53 swabs retained after procedures.
- Medication errors recorded include 15 cases of oral drugs given intravenously, 14 insulin overdoses mainly from wrong syringes and nine wrong blood‑type transfusions.
- NHS guidance requires trusts to investigate each never event and act on lessons learned, and the steady annual total raises questions about whether current safety measures are reducing risk to patients.