Northampton General Hospital bosses apologise for medication blunder as another 'never event' recorded

Northampton hospital chiefs have apologised to a patient after wrongly administering their medication during an important operation.

In February 2023, a patient at Northampton General Hospital (NGH) was having an operation to treat a broken hip when hospital staff messed up their dose of anaesthetic.

The hospital staff incorrectly gave the patient anaesthetic on the wrong hip, according to the latest NGH board meeting papers.

This type of incident is called a ‘never event’ by hospital bosses, which are described as being ‘the kind of mistakes that should never happen’.

NGH’s medical director, Hemant Nemade, said: “While ‘never events’ and other serious incidents are rare we take them very seriously and investigate them appropriately in line with national guidance.

“We sincerely apologise to any patient affected and investigate such incidents very thoroughly with the aim of learning from all incidents and putting actions in place to avoid any recurrence.”

It is not known how old the patient was but broken hip operations tend to normally be for old age pensioners, according to medical experts.

There have been six never events recorded by NGH since March 2021, according to board meeting papers.

Over at Kettering General Hospital (KGH), there have been five never events since March 2021, according to board meeting papers.

KGH apologised to a patient after mixing up their medication and administering it the wrong way.

The patient was at the Rothwell Road hospital in August when they needed medication which should have been taken orally.

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