British hospitals are to take their lead from the aviation industry by implementing an aircraft-style checklist to cut the risks of surgery.
Surgeons and nurses will be asked to follow a checklist before each operation, in a process similar to that used by pilots before takeoff.
A World Health Organisation-led initiative, the checklist has been described as the biggest innovation in medicine since the stethoscope.
An estimated 2,000 National Health Service patients die each year as a result of errors in treatment.
Although serious errors are rare, a study of 38 surgeons in 14 NHS hospitals published in the British Medical Journal found “most” had experience of operating on the wrong part of the body.
The Safer Surgery Checklist is designed to ensure basic precautions have been taken before, during and after every clinical procedure.
Atul Gawande, the US surgeon who is leading the scheme for the WHO, said: “The complexity of medicine has increased to the point where no one person can ensure it is delivered reliably and accurately. We have been struggling for a tool that can help people reliably deliver safe clinical care to patients.”
“The checklist is turning out to be as important to successful care as the stethoscope.”
The checks range from confirming the site for surgery to counting the number of swabs after the operation has been completed.
The initiative is being tested at eight other hospitals around the world – in the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand, India, Philippines, Tanzania and Jordan – and has already resulted in “substantial reductions in complications and deaths,” according to data gathered by the WHO.
Dr Gawande said: “At the start of the pilot in the eight hospitals, 64% of patients missed at least one check. Putting in the checklist cut the failure rate by half and has reduced deaths and complications, though it is too early to put a figure on this.”
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