It has recently been reported that an increasing number of critically ill patients are suffering harm as a result of inadequate care provided by NHS staff. The number of ‘serious incidents’ involving ‘sub-optimal care of deteriorating patients’ is rising across hospital, ambulance and mental health services.
The issues have come to light when previously unpublished NHS England data was provided to Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat Health minister.
Rise In Serious Incidents Involving Sub-Optimal Care – Statistics
The figures show that the number of patients in English hospitals, who are suffering harm in serious incidents due to delays in their treatment, have significantly risen over the last 2 years from 700 to 1,515.
The statistics do not confirm what harm, if any, patients suffered as a result of the lapses in patient safety, but incidents include cases involving severe harm or even death.
The number of serious incidents involving sub-optimal care increased by:
- 10% in hospitals (from 580 in 2015-16 to 636 in 2017-18);
- 28% amongst ambulance services (from 93 in 2015-16 to 119 in 2017-18); and
- 16% across mental health services (from 91 in 2016-17 to 106 in 2017-18).
The figures demonstrate that there have also been increases in the number of such serious incidents involving surgery, which has risen by 16% over the last two years. Incidents involving delays and failures to act on test results are up 28%.
Norman Lamb commented: “The figures show there have been disturbing deterioration’s in performance in some vital areas of patient safety” and that this should be a “cause for concern”. He went onto say that under-staffing across the NHS is likely to be a “key factor” in the rise.
NHS Improvement, the Health Service Regulator, has highlighted that in 2017-18, the NHS was understaffed by 93,000 personnel. This figure includes 37,000 nurses and 10,000 doctors.
A spokesperson for NHS Improvement has stated:
“When serious incidents occur we expect NHS providers to investigate and get to the underlying causes of what happened. The purpose of these patient safety investigations is to establish learning so local, and in some cases national, changes can be made to ensure patients are kept safe and staff are supported to prevent similar incidents occurring.”
The rise in these incidents is very concerning. Worryingly, as demands on NHS services continue to increase, the situation is likely to continue to deteriorate if under-staffing in the NHS is not urgently addressed. This is a difficult and ongoing issue that will take time and resource to resolve, so it remains to be seen how the NHS will deal with the most recent reports.
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