SURGICAL equipment was left inside patients and the wrong body parts operated on in a series of blunders across hospitals in north Essex this year.

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Trust, which runs Colchester Hospital, recorded a total of six so-called “never events” from April to the end of October.

One had a misplaced gastric feeding tube, four suffered “wrong site” surgery and one had a foreign object left inside them following surgery.

Last year, for the period April 2020 to March 2021, the trust also recorded six never events.

Three were wrong site surgery, two were an overdose of insulin due to abbreviations or incorrect device and one was for administering medicine via the wrong route.

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The errors are recorded as “never events” as the NHS says they should not occur as they could endanger a patient’s life.

The incidents are recorded even if the action does not cause the patient’s life to be put in danger.

In total 248 never events were reported across the country compared to the 364 reported the year before.

The report said the pandemic may reflect why fewer never events were recorded across the NHS.

It said: “The provisional data in this report relates to periods where the NHS has been responding to the Covid-19 pandemic and there were major shifts in service provision away from planned and elective surgery towards medical and intensive care.

“This may reflect these changes in service provision as historically most reported never events typically related to surgical and invasive procedures.”

At the Mid Essex Hospitals Trust, which runs Broomfield Hospital, there were two incidents in the time period.

One was an overdose of insulin due to abbreviations or incorrect device and the other was wrong site surgery.

A spokesman for the East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust said: “We have a strong safety culture at ESNEFT and adhere to all the national best practice guidelines for reporting patient safety incidents.

“We learn from each and share all lessons learnt with all colleagues.”