HOSPITAL bosses are aiming to ensure that approved checklists are always completed by surgeons, after discovering ‘instances’ in which they were incomplete.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) checklists were introduced in the NHS in 2009, as part of a drive to reduce surgical deaths by avoiding errors.

According to East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust board papers, up to five per cent of checklists were not being completed.

The trust said these related to emergency cases.

In a bid to achieve a 100 per cent completion rate, presentations have been given to surgeons to reinforce the ‘Five Steps to Safer Surgery’, which includes the WHO guide-lines, while daily reports are now being reviewed.

In a report to the trust board, chief nurse Christine Pearson said: “The internal audits of check-lists have identified ins-tances of lists not being fully completed and a programme of work aimed at embedding the checklist into the culture of surg-eons and theatre teams to ensure consistent and reliable use for every surgical procedure is now under way.”

Adherence to the check-list, which includes ‘count-ing out’ of surgical equipment, may have prevented a ‘completely unacceptable’ incident in March, when a swab was mistakenly left inside a patient at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

Although the swab was successfully removed and the patient unharmed, the incident was classed as a ‘never event’, deemed so serious that it should never happen in the NHS.

Dr Ian Stanley, medical director, said: “The trust has achieved a significant improvement in compli-ance with the WHO check-list following work undertaken by the theatres division where staff now have greater authority.”