New figures reported in the Daily Mirror have found that a tenth of patients admitted to hospital are likely to be endangered as a result of a medical mistake.

Over 2221 errors were considered serious and included operating on the wrong person or part of the body.

Overworked staff and staff shortages are being blamed for the mistakes but Katherine Murphy, director of the Patient’s Association thinks this is no excuse: “These are all avoidable accidents. Patient safety must be paramount in every hospital. Saving money must not be put before patients’ lives”.

However, if all patient information within the NHS was stored so it was of a high quality and accessible to those who needed it to make informed clinical decisions, there should be no reason why even the most overworked of NHS staff would not be able to perform their role to the high standards we expect.