A woman who was supposed to undergo a keyhole hysterectomy but instead received a total abdominal hysterectomy was among nine serious harm events recorded by the Bay of Plenty District Health Board in the past year.
The health board, which covers Tauranga and Whakatane Hospitals, reported nine serious adverse events in the 2015/16 year compared to 13 the previous year. Details of the nine incidents were released by the Health Quality and Safety Committee of New Zealand today.In one of the nine incidents, action was recommended after a case where a patient believed they were booked in for a total laparoscopic hysterectomy but instead received a total abdominal hysterectomy.
A laparoscopic hysterectomy requires several small incisions in the abdomen while an abdominal hysterectomy requires a 10 to 20cm incision in the lower abdomen, according to the leaflet given to Bay of Plenty District Health Board patients.
It said an abdominal hysterectomy usually required a two- to three-day hospital stay and a full recovery could take four to six weeks while a laparoscopic hysterectomy may require a shorter hospital stay and sometimes a faster recovery at home.
The report found the two different procedures were included in the patient's admission paperwork and the consent section of the form for the procedure was mistakenly sighted as having been correctly signed during the pre-operative sign-in check.