MORE than £22million of compensation for surgical errors has been paid out by south Essex hospital bosses in the last five years, it has been revealed.

Between 2019 and 2024, the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which manages Southend, Basildon and Broomfield hospitals, dealt with 236 claims regarding surgical errors, 177 of which were settled.

In 2019/2020, 58 claims were made against the trust – the highest number of claims over the past five years.

A year later, this number decreased to 45 claims.

The trust has experienced a rise in claims over the past year compared to 2022/23, with a total of 41 before the number of claims rose again to 49 the following year.

During the 2023/24 financial year, the figure dropped to 41.

Common errors can include foreign objects left in the body, such as surgical instruments and cleaning materials, as well as "wrong site surgery", where patients can be put at a greater risk of infection and additional scarring.

Over the past five years, the trust has paid out a total of £22,044,683, with the highest amount in 2022/23, standing at £7,363,858.

Diane Sarkar, chief nursing and quality officer at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: "As one of the largest Trusts in the country we serve a population of over 1.2 million, which means we will always have more claims than smaller trusts. Over the last year the number of claims have decreased.

"We do our best to deliver safe, high-quality patient care every day. Unfortunately, sometimes things go wrong, and when they do we fully investigate and take learning from every single incident."

The figures were obtained by law firm, Medical Negligence Assist.

Gareth Lloyd, medical negligence solicitor for JF Law, said: "The chances of a patient suffering a surgical error are remote, yet every operation carries with it a number of risks, and if something goes wrong, there can be lifelong consequences."

Surgical errors are unexpected mistakes or accidents that occur during procedures and they are classed as "never events" as they are errors that should not have happened in surgery.

These errors can have significant physical, emotional and financial consequences for patients as they may require additional treatment and suffer more pain.