MORE than 5500 operations have been "botched" in Scottish hospitals during the past five years, nearly 1000 of them in Glasgow.

In 3000 cases, patients had organs accidentally cut or punctured during surgery.

The mistakes include the failure of sterile precautions in surgery but could also be "foreign bodies" accidentally left in the body during surgery and an "inappropriate" operation being carried out.

Overall, NHS Lothian's total of 1190 mistakes over the five years was also the highest of any individual board with Greater Glasgow and Clyde second on 948.

Of the 3106 cases where organs were accidentally cut or punctured, the highest total was in Lothian, with 703 cases.

The figures, which include minor errors, were obtained by Liberal Democrat health spokesman Ross Finnie through parliamentary answers.

Mr Finnie said today: "Most patients will accept that undergoing operations is not without a certain element of risk.

"But 5514 operations have been botched in Scottish hospitals over the past five years."

The figures from Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon set out cases in Scotland from 2004 to 2008 where surgical error can be "inferred" using available information.

Mr Finnie added: "Health boards must be able to reassure patients that they take steps to minimise the risk of surgical errors.

"This means making sure that surgeons and their medical teams are not being pressured to take dangerous risks to meet waiting times."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said that with 1.2million surgical procedures carried out during 2008, the figures had to be seen in context.

A spokesman for Public Health Minister Shona Robison added that the government was working hard to improve the figures and to learn from "regrettable mistakes".