Retained Object Post-Procedure Occurrences      

FOI REFERENCE: 24475  FOI DATE: 28^th October 2024        

How many incidents of a retained foreign object post-procedure were logged by your Trust in the past five years?

By ‘retained foreign object post procedure’, I refer to retained guide wires, mouth props, surgical instruments, needles, vaginal swabs, throat packs, etc.

Please break down this information by:

• The retained item.
• The financial year, covering April 1st – March 31st (2019/20, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25). For the latter, please provide information from April 1st to September 30th 2024.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals has had 7 incidents of never events relating to retain objects over the last 5 years

Including: gauge PPV ports, guidewire, theatre clip and swabs, vicryl needle