Quarterly Data Summary Issue 9: Learning from reporting - device-related incidents

This learning from reporting section taken from Quarterly Data Summary Issue 9 focuses on reports of serious harm relating to devices.

Between April 2006 and March 2007, three per cent of all incidents reported to the National Reporting and Learning Service related to medical devices; a total of 24,207 incident reports. Of these, 500 were reported as causing severe harm to the patient or death.

On further filtering, 303 incident reports were analysed. The analysis identifies the device or devices that were involved, the type of incident, and contributory factors for different types of device. The document includes recommendations for avoiding certain types of device-related incidents in future.