39 KILLED BY NHS FOUL-UPS
ABOVE: NHS dossier has revealed 39 patients died due to faulty or missing medical equipment
A horrifying NHS dossier has revealed 39 patients died due to faulty or missing medical equipment.
Lifesaving apparatus was also unavailable, had been mislaid or could not be obtained due to red tape.
Blunders included heart attack patients dying because defibrillators used by paramedics had key bits missing or were broken.
One person died after staff failed to locate a piece of equipment that would have helped speed up a blood transfusion.
Another patient passed away while NHS managers spent seven weeks in a funding row over whether the person
should be allowed heart surgery.
The 39 incidents relating to equipment in the last financial year were classified in the “death” category by NHS staff and reported to the National Patient Safety Agency.
This means the fault either caused the patient’s death or could have had fatal consequences. A Daily Star Sunday Freedom of Information request also revealed:
Hospital medics failed to save a heart attack victim as they only had two faulty suction devices to clear the victim’s airways and no oxygen for ten minutes.
The family of a critically ill woman who was being nursed at home asked for an emergency delivery of oxygen, only to be told it would take 48 hours. She died before it arrived.
A cancer patient who had a feeding tube inserted directly into their stomach died after a leak caused a fatal infection. It later emerged other hospitals had stopped using the “unsafe” procedure.
A patient who could not swallow died of complic-ations associated with medics putting a feeding tube down his
throat.
Joyce Robins, of Patient Concern, said: “We need to know which hospitals neglect their equipment or don’t know where it is.”
But a Department of Health spokesman said: “Patient safety is our top priority and hospitals have a responsibility to ensure equipment is safe and fit for purpose.”
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