Hundreds of NHS patients have been harmed due to errors that should never have occurred, including operations on the wrong body part and medical objects being left inside them, new data shows.
Annual figures from NHS England show that there were 403 "never events" for the year from April 2025 to March this year, according to an analysis by the Press Association.
Never events are patient safety incidents that are so serious that they should never happen and are preventable.
There were 166 incidents related to wrong site surgery, including 17 people who had a procedure intended for another patient, and 40 where treatments were to the wrong side or part of the body.
In one case, a patient had an organ or body part removed when the plan had been to conserve it.
Overall, 121 of the never events related to foreign objects being left in patients after procedures or surgery, including 26 cases of guide wires, two cases of cotton wool balls, one nasal pack, and one of a central catheter line.
Two cases involved surgical gloves, 22 were surgical instruments, five were surgical needles, 21 were surgical swabs, and 32 were vaginal swabs.
The data also showed there were eight cases where patients received a procedure that was not part of the surgical plan.
There were four other cases where the patient had the wrong procedure altogether.
Six people suffered incisions to the wrong part of the body, and 30 received injections in the wrong place.
In addition, 38 patients had nerve blocks given on the wrong side and 22 had the wrong skin lesion removed or the incorrect biopsy.
Fifty never events involved the wrong implant or prosthesis, including four cases relating to hips, six to intrauterine contraceptive devices, 14 to knees, and nine to eye lenses.
A further 17 cases involved administration of medication by the wrong route, including 15 cases where oral medication was given intravenously.
Another 14 patients suffered an overdose of insulin, mostly involving the wrong syringes, while nine patients were given the wrong blood type.
A further three cases involved falls from poorly restricted windows, two patients suffered scalds or burns from water being too hot, and one patient was connected to air rather than oxygen.
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The total number of 403 incidents for the year is the same as for the previous year.
An NHS spokesperson said: "NHS staff work exceptionally hard to keep patients safe and incidents like these are extremely rare, but when they do occur NHS trusts are required to investigate what has happened and take effective steps to learn from them and make improvements."
(c) Sky News 2026: Gloves left inside patients and accidental organ removal among 403 'never' mistakes in NHS
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