Hospital errors causing serious harm climb

File Photo / Dean Purcell

The number of public hospital errors that caused or could have caused major harm to patients has increased.

But specialists say that despite this, hospitals are becoming increasingly safe and that the rise in the number of "serious or sentinel events" in the year to June 30 is probably the result of better reporting by the staff involved.

There were 374 patients who were involved in a serious or sentinel event, of whom 127 died; compared with 308 events, including 92 deaths, the year before.

The Health Quality and Safety Commission defines serious or sentinel events as those that cause, or have the potential to cause, serious lasting disability or death, and which are not related to the patient's illness, injury or underlying condition.

Falls were 34 per cent of events in 2009/10, clinical management problems 33 per cent and suicides 17 per cent.

The number of suicides increased to 64 in 2009/10 - from 37 - and were nearly half of deaths from serious or sentinel events.

Professor Alan Merry, the chairman of the commission's interim board, said this afternoon the increase in the number of suicides in the latest serious and sentinel events report was attributable to its inclusion of deaths that occurred up to seven days after interaction with mental health services - and to general improvement in the culture of reporting by staff.

"International experience with event reporting shows that the process of increasing awareness often results in a rise in the number of events reported," Professor Merry said.

He emphasised that although any serious or sentinel event was traumatic and often tragic, the number of events must be seen in the context that public hospitals treated and discharged almost one million people in the 12 months to June this year.