Shropshire Star

Third 'never event' at Shropshire hospitals in three months

A serious medical "never event" occurred in A&E department at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital last month, it has been revealed.

Published
Royal Shrewsbury Hospital

The event, in July, was the third never event recorded by the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) in as many months.

A report to SaTH's trust board, which meets today, says it related to the administration of a medicine by the wrong route.

It also revealed an investigation is under way.

Never events are named so because they are incidents that guidelines say should never happen.

A report to the trust board says: "The incident reported in July was reported as a never event as it related to the administration of a medicine by the wrong route although did not meet the specific criteria of the never events list (NHSE, 2018).

"The incident took place in the ED (emergency department) at RSH.

"The incident is being investigated through the serious incident process at present."

The exact details of the incident have not been disclosed.

In June, a never event happened in an operating theatre at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital.

It involved a “retained swab” during an ear, nose and throat procedure, but the trust said no harm was caused to the patient.

A never event recorded by the trust in May involved "wrong site" surgery.