What is going on in our hospitals?

A frightening array of serious medical mishaps and preventable deaths in hospitals is due to be revealed next week.

A health official says the public will be shocked by a report which shows nearly one in six patients will suffer a hospital mishap or accident.

"It's quite frightening. If you enter a public hospital you have a 15 per cent chance of suffering an adverse event. This can be anything from cutting off your wrong leg to not giving you a pill at lunchtime."

The Health Ministry report will highlight a litany of "sentinel events" - major medical mishaps or incidents - at all 21 district health boards between 2003 and last year.

Many of the mistakes cost patients their lives.

The report's release has divided the medical community. Debate is raging over the public's right to know about serious medical mishaps, and over fears that doctors will stop reporting incidents if their mistakes are made public.

The report will provide details of patients dying after being given double doses of medication; patient suicides that could have been prevented if proper process had been followed; and people getting operations they did not need or request.

The report was compiled in response to a Dominion Post request under the Official Information Act to various health boards after Capital and Coast was forced to release details of 23 events - including 16 deaths - to the paper last year.

A 2001 study of 13 public hospitals found more than one in eight patients suffered some accident, error or mishap. About a third were "highly preventable".

The official said most events did not result in long-term effects for patients and New Zealand's rate of mishaps was on a par with other developed countries.

Health Ministry principal medical adviser David Galler said the public had a right to know what went on in hospitals and to be assured about their safety.

Doctors needed encouragement to report serious incidents so the health system could learn from mistakes and prevent similar mishaps. "We need to work toward a culture of trust."

Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson favoured "league tables", ranking hospitals by such measures as surgical mortality and infection rates. The idea was "not to name and shame ... but encourage boards to lift their game".

Some doctors, however, say ranking boards would be counterproductive.

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell supported greater transparency, but "in context". Cases varied in their complexity and degree of risk.

The furore over Capital and Coast's reporting of an event had "left the impression there was a cover-up when there wasn't".

A Wellington doctor said the focus on adverse events would push hospitals "back into the dark ages". "People will be less likely to own up when something goes wrong."

He admitted there were longstanding problems with "managerial ineptitude", but said it was wrong to infer the number of critical incidents was indicative of major clinical problems.

The negative publicity had harmed Wellington Hospital's ability to recruit and retain staff. The decision by DHBs to release their reports simultaneously was intended to avoid individual hospitals being "singled out and pilloried".

- © Fairfax NZ News