Scandal of an NHS that makes 1m errors a year

'Catastrophic' blunders kill patients, with hundreds of errors in childbirths, says report that Government denies it tried to hide

The Department of Health denied yesterday it had anything to hide over a report suggesting more than one million medical errors are made in NHS hospitals every year.

The study of medical errors, including "catastrophic" epi-sodes resulting in deaths of patients and hundreds of mistakes in childbirth, was to be published in full today, but a watered-down version will be released instead.

Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, will now present only "preliminary figures" to the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) conference in London with a "health warning" about what conclusions can be drawn.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "Ministers and the NPSA decided not to publish information about the number of adverse incidents at this stage because the raw figures are unreliable and not sufficiently robust for an official government publication.

"But there is nothing to hide and we are committed to publish audited figures when they are available."

Dr Liam Fox, the Tory health spokesman, said: "If patients are being put at risk there needs to be a full public and transparent debate about putting things right. Covering up important data makes people more suspicious."

Officials said one problem with the new system for reporting errors was the lack of well-worked-out criteria to clarify which mistakes should be classified as minor, moderate or serious.

The department added that the true scale of errors was probably underestimated. "One of the major question marks about the quality of the data is that because the pilot scheme is in its early stages the number of reported incidents is less than international studies would suggest for comparable health care systems," the spokesman said. The pilot study by the NPSA shows that some of the incidents are relatively minor, such as a patient tripping, a scald or a bandage being wrongly applied. But a few were categorised as "catastrophic" because they resulted in death for patients. More than 300 errors in childbirth were reported and it is understood concerns were raised about the safety of a drug in common use.

It is the first time that NHS staff have been openly encouraged to report "adverse incidents" as part of a government drive to reduce the culture of blame in the NHS. But a source said there was "too much fear" among ministers about the public alarm that could be generated by the figures, particularly those involving potentially avoidable deaths. Mike Stone of the Patients' Association added: "I am surprised this information has not been put into the public domain."

Two years ago, a report suggested there were at least 850,000 "adverse incidents" in the NHS each year, hundreds of which caused severe health problems – or death – for the patients. Payouts for medical negligence have soared in recent years. MPs last week raised concern about the £4.4bn bill for potential liabilities the NHS faces in patient claims.

Case study: Teenager recovering from leukaemia died after injection mistake

Wayne Jowett died after a series of blunders led to a chemotherapy drug being injected into his spine rather than his veins.

It was not the first time such a mistake had been made. Mr Jowett, who had been expected to make a full recovery from leukaemia, was the 14th victim of wrongful injection of the drug vincristine since 1985. "We can put a man on the Moon but why can't we find a safe method to prevent these deaths?" the coroner said at his inquest last year.

The drug was clearly marked for intravenous-use only but the two hospital doctors admitted they had little or no experience of giving the treatment. Mr Jowett, an 18-year-old apprentice mechanic, died a month later from creeping paralysis.

He was given the fatal injection at Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, in January last year. The chief medical officer, Professor Liam Donaldson, described it as a "rare but catastrophic error". The Government ordered a review of the administration of chemotherapy treatments for cancerto try to reduce mistakes over the labelling of medicines.

An independent inquiry criticised the doctors for failing to make proper checks before the injection. The report also highlighted complacency about safety on the chemotherapy ward where Mr Jowett was treated and a lack of awareness about the dangers of vincristine, which is almost always fatal when given spinally.

Professor Brian Toft, who conducted the inquiry, declined to apportion direct blame for Mr Jowett's deathand said it was "not caused by one or even several human errors, but a far more complex amalgam of human, organisational, technical and social interactions".

Dr David Morton, a junior doctor who had been on the ward for five weeks, and Dr Feda Mulhem, a specialist registrar who had joined the hospital two days earlier, realised within five minutes that a mistake had been made but emergency surgery was not enough to save Mr Jowett. The doctors were arrested in April this year but released on bail without charge.

Paul Peachey