Behind the scenes at the GWH

Last year two 'never' events occurred at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon. They included putting a tube in the wrong kidney and putting the wrong implant in during a cataract operation. The hospital was advised to make sure the World Health Organisations surgical checklist should be done more thoroughly. In a nutshell it's a checklist that should be carried out before surgery to make sure everything is in order for the operation to go ahead. At GWH this wasn't being done on a consistent basis resulting in mistakes.

A Care Quality Commission Report on the GWH came out in January 2012. It showed that whilst things had improved more could be done to make sure the WHO surgical checklist was being done properly. So now, the Great Western Hospital have decided that the surgeon should be ultimately responsible for completing the checklist properly.

I was granted behind the scenes access to the hospital and observed a hip replacement. Everything was in order, the checks were carried out properly and the operation was a success...