The long road to ensuring patient safety in NHS hospitals

摘要

In 1995, 18 month old Joshua Loveday was scheduled to undergo a complicated "switch" heart operation at Bristol Royal Infirmary. But behind the scenes, desperate last minute attempts were being made by an anaesthetist, a surgeon from outside Bristol, and a senior official from the Department of Health to persuade the hospital not to go ahead with the operation. Unknown to Joshua's parents and the public generally, figures kept by Bristol anaesthetist Stephen Bolsin suggested that the hospital's mortality rates for such operations were much higher than those at other units. The operation went ahead anyway, and Joshua died on the operating table.