Twelve UK state hospital trusts shown to be failing on safety

London: Twelve National Health Service hospital trusts in England are significantly underperforming on basic safety, according to a report published by a health information body Sunday.

Carried out by Dr Foster, an NHS partner organisation that collates and analyses health care data, the research also highlights 27 trusts with unusually high death rates.

Two days earlier, health watchdog Monitor sacked the chairman of Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust, accusing him of failing to cut high death rates, cancer care waiting lists and queues in the casualty ward.

The Dr Foster research showed 82 cases in which doctors operated on the wrong part of a patient's body.

It also shows more than 200 incidents in which foreign objects such as swabs and drill bits were left in patients' bodies after surgery.

"Inside the health system it is well known that these problems exist and to be fair it is true of every health system in the world," Roger Taylor, director of Dr Foster, told Sky News.

"Everybody is wrestling with ‘how do you stop this ... how do you make health care safe?' and the reason for our report is that one thing that has come through very clearly around the world is that part of the answer is being very open and honest and transparent about where there are problems."

The Dr Foster Hospital Guide 2009 rates the performance of NHS trusts throughout England on patient safety.

Twelve were given the lowest rating, deemed to be "significantly underperforming on basic safety measures".