As many as one-and-a-half million Brits feel they’ve been harmed by avoidable mistakes at their GP or dental practice in the past year.
That number could rise to 3 million, if avoidable ‘near misses’ are also included.
That’s according to a new study from the University of Manchester, which found that errors included having the wrong tooth extracted.
‘Our survey suggests there are probably a large number of patients in Great Britain who believe they have experienced a potentially-harmful preventable problem in primary care,’ said Dr Jill Stocks, who led the study.
The University of Manchester is warning that these mistakes could have a lasting impact on the trust patients place in healthcare services.
Never events
There were more cases of less obvious harm such as failure to communicate or delayed appointments and diagnosis.
The study comes after the University of Edinburgh published a list of ‘never events’.
The university claims the list will help to ensure excellent patient care worldwide.
‘Never events are a vital way to flag failures in procedure that put patient safety at risk,’ project lead, Professor Aziz Sheikh said.
‘By listing a consensus position on never events in dentistry, we hope that regulators and professional bodies will be able to assess the frequency of such events and reduce their occurrence.’
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