Sheffield Teaching Hospitals’ “never events” have been revealed - but what are NHS never events, and why are they important?
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00:00At Sheffield Teaching Hospital's NHS Foundation Trust, there were four Never events which
00:06took place in the 2023-24 year, but what are these and why is it important?
00:12Medical incidents are put into the Never events category when they're the kind of thing that,
00:16as their name suggests, should just never happen. The NHS says that the point of collecting
00:21data on these is to act as a red flag that systems of implementing safety advice or alerts
00:26in an organisation may not be good enough. Previously, NHS England could impose financial
00:32sanctions on a trust over Never events. However, since 2018, there's been a shift to try and
00:39change from a culture of blaming towards a culture of learning from mistakes. There are
00:4315 types of Never events, which include wrong implant or prosthesis, wrong site surgery
00:50and medication being given via the wrong route. The trend of Never events at Sheffield Teaching
00:55Hospitals appears to be moving in the right direction. In 2022-23, there were eight Never
01:01events. In 2023-24, there were four Never events, which you can read more about in this
01:07article. And so far in the 2024-25 year, no Never events at the trust have been recorded
01:13in the NHS England data, although they do specify that the data is still provisional
01:18and subject to change.