A study has found that about 42,000 mistakes affecting patients in hospitals could have been prevented.
Adverse Events in New Zealand Public Hospitals (Part 1), published in the latest New Zealand Medical Journal, found that 12.9 per cent of about 700,000 hospital admissions a year suffered adverse events, including drug reactions, mistakes in treatment and faulty test results.
It estimated that about 6 per cent of patients suffered mistakes that were preventable.
About 13,000 cases were associated with permanent disability or death.
People with digestive and respiratory conditions were more likely to be seriously affected, but people with injuries and musculoskeletal conditions had the highest risk of an adverse event.
Elderly people were more vulnerable than those under 65. About a fifth of mishaps overall happened outside hospitals, in doctors' rooms for instance.
New Zealand's rate was lower than Australia's, but higher than Britain's - 16.6 per cent and 10.8 per cent respectively.
- NZPA
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Avoidable hospital errors put at 42,000
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