The essential stories and talking points from Friday
- Today’s must know: Trust declares ‘never event’ after clinician operates on wrong patient
- Today’s top briefing: Mental Health Matters: A good wheeze from the Prime Minister
- Today’s job offer: HEE retracts hundreds of job offers after email blunder
Mistaken identity
A case of surgical mistaken identity has sparked an urgent review at University Hospitals of Leicester Trust.
The trust declared a “never event” after a man had surgery intended for another man with the same surname. He underwent a procedure that involved removing a right upper back lesion before the error was a uncovered.
While the men shared a surname, they had no other details in common, and the proper checks were not completed before surgery.
In a letter to staff, obtained by HSJ, the trust warned staff would be “held to account” if safety procedures were not followed.
“Please check your administrative and clinical processes to assure yourselves that this could not happen in your service.”
The never event is only the latest problem for the trust, which is under pressure to improve its care quality after NHS Improvement warned its reputation was at risk from ”sustained poor performance” in A&E.
Email blunder
We’ve all done it. Sending an email that you then have to retract because you made a silly mistake.
Health Education England are feeling the heat, quite rightly, after a pretty spectacular email blunder on Thursday night when they told 293 doctors they had job offers when in fact they didn’t.
The junior doctors were all hoping to transfer from one region in England to another. Several contacted HSJ in anger after they received an email at 5.30pm giving them the good news that they had been successful only to have another, 20 minutes later, telling them it had been a mistake and they may not have a job at all.
HEE has confirmed that out of the 293 doctors, 140 were told they had a job when the opposite was true.
A simple email mistake it may be, but after last year’s damaging junior doctor dispute, which revealed the resentment some junior doctors feel over how they are collectively treated, this error will only serve to remind doctors of their anger towards the NHS.
Indeed, as one doctor told HSJ, the whole process of applying for a transfer was a “farce” and many felt undervalued.
If nothing else, this blunder shows how far HEE and the rest of the system needs to go to win over this essential segment of the workforce.
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