The endless tiny errors of the NHS

I wrote recently elsewhere about Jeremy Hunt’s good new book examining unnecessary deaths in the NHS. Someone should write a companion volume about the other end of the scale of seriousness – the literally millions of small mistakes and obstructions effected by ‘the envy of the world’. Since 2014, I have found myself in hospitals many times, though never as a patient. Four close family relations or in-laws have died in hospital in that time, and several living members of my family have received various treatments. This has involved, I think, eight NHS hospitals and dozens of visits. In only one case has a major misdiagnosis contributed to otherwise avoidable death, but almost every encounter has been strewn with error or delay. These include immense waits in A&E, postponement of operations, the loss or muddling of medical notes or X-rays, the cancellation of appointments, non-emergency moves to another hospital conducted in the small hours, shifting the patient between wards for no discernible medical reason, being asked the same questions again and again by different staff, discontinuity of care between doctors with accompanying failure to communicate, and car park machines that are out of order (especially at night).