THREE patients at Warrington Hospital died after serious untoward incidents and never events last year, it has been revealed.

A Freedom of Information request by the Warrington Guardian has found that Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust recorded a total of 20 serious untoward incidents, including one never event, in 2015.

Serious untoward incidents are events investigated by trusts where problems occurred in order to learn lessons, while never events are preventable safety incidents that should not happen.

The Freedom of Information request revealed that three patients died after such incidents, while others suffered fractures and had to undergo extensive surgery.

Seven patient falls were recorded as serious untoward incidents, two of which resulted in deaths.

One patient fell from their bed after a tab alarm failed and died after a head injury sustained caused bleeding inside the skill, while another died after a fall caused a subarachnoid haemorrhage – an uncommon type of stroke.

Two other falls caused patients to have haemorrhages, while two patients fell from their beds and fractured the neck of their femur – another patient fell from their chair, causing a fractured wrist.

One other person died after a serious untoward incident at the hospital having suffered a hypoglycaemic cardiac arrest – the conclusion of the coroner’s verdict for a cause of death is currently awaited.

A delay in a diagnosis of cancer resulted in a patient requiring extensive surgery while a delayed diagnosis of testicular torsion, where the cord providing blood to the testicle becomes twisted, resulted in the removal of the testicle.

The one never event in 2015 occurred when a patient was injected in the wrong part of their foot ahead of surgery, although they recovered without harm.

An unanticipated foetal demise in pregnancy resulted in a stillbirth, and although it did not occur at the trust the patients was brought in and the episode was therefore recorded as a serious untoward incident at the hospital.

Last week the Runcorn and Widnes World reported on an assault on a patient by a staff member which was recorded as a serious untoward incident.

Nurse Ross Forbes was dismissed from the trust and suspended from the profession for three month after it was found he used ‘excessive and unnecessary’ tests and restraints on the patient in the A&E department.

Seven avoidable grade three pressure ulcers were also listed as serious untoward incidents.

A spokesman for Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “In all cases full duty of candour was applied to the incident investigation, which includes the family receiving a copy of the investigation.”