Hunt: NHS 'Caused 3,000 Deaths' Last Year

Around 3,000 NHS patients died needlessly last year because of poor care, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said.

He also confirmed that nearly 500,000 people were harmed unnecessarily as he called on the NHS to end the "silent scandal of errors".

Mr Hunt's words came amid allegations that top bosses at the Care Quality Commission were involved in a cover-up of its failure to investigate a spate of baby deaths.

In a speech at University College London Hospitals, Mr Hunt revealed that 325 "never events" were recorded last year - incidents so unacceptable that they should never happen.

He said the UK has become "so numbed to the inevitability of patient harm that we accept the unacceptable" and called for a more open culture where errors are constantly revealed and reduced.

Mr Hunt said: "The facts are clear. Last year there were nearly half a million incidents that led to patients being harmed, and 3,000 people lost their lives while in the care of the NHS.

"It is time for a major rethink - a different kind of culture and leadership, where staff are supported to do what their instincts and commitment to patients tell them.

"We must make sure that patients know where the buck stops and who is ultimately responsible for their care.

"And above all, we must listen more to NHS staff, so we can design systems that encourage them to act safely whatever pressures they face."

Concerns were first raised about the Morecambe Bay NHS Trust in 2008, but in 2010 the CQC gave it a clean bill of health.

Mr Hunt said the CQC's decision to reveal the names of three managers who were present when the deletion of a critical review of the watchdog's inspections there was discussed is a sign that the culture is changing.

In his speech, Mr Hunt added: "In the wake of Mid Staffs, Morecambe Bay and many other shocking lapses in care, we must ask ourselves whether we, along with other countries, have become so numbed to the inevitability of patient harm that we accept the unacceptable."

The Health Secretary called for the NHS to become the "world's safest health system" and a return to the days when the name of the responsible doctor and nurse were clearly written above every hospital bed.

Figures for 2011/12 show 70 patients as having received "wrong site" surgery, where the wrong part of the body or even the wrong patient was operated on, and 41 people were given incorrect implants or prostheses.

Despite such failings, health officials said the NHS tops a comparison on patient safety, beating France, Germany, Sweden, Norway and the US.

It sees nearly three million people every week and around 0.4% of those appointments ended up with incidents of harm while 0.003% ended with a person's death.