Yesterday my wife had a laparoscopy to remove a a very large cyst on her left ovary but during the procedure they accidently burnt my wife’s skin just below the breast bone on removal of the laser. They informed me straight after the procedure had taken place and apologised and said it shouldn’t happened and if we want to complain we can.
It’s been a stressful couple of months because they did inform us that they might need to remove both ovaries and we haven’t had children yet but everything went well and the ovaries are fine. The service we have received right from the start has been amazing and very efficient. The burn isn’t very big and quite superficial but the surgeon, another dr and a nurse have said we have the right to complain but I’m not really one for complaining and both of us are just happy that we can still provably have kids. They have done a full incident report and have told us that they will look into why it happened. I think they basically forgot to switch it off before removing and obviously we don’t want this happening to anyone else. What would you do?

Good to hear your wife is doing well. What would you achieve by complaining? Have you formally thanked the staff?

I wouldn’t complain, it sounds like they are being upfront with you…what more will you get from complaining? It will give them work to do that will take them away from what they should be doing, and appear to be doing well according to the rest of your post.

What would you do?

Probably thank the staff, chalk it down to an accident they will learn from, and get on with making babies.

Yes we have thanked the staff and they have all been incredible.
I don’t know what it will achieve by complaining but it’s almost like they wanted us to by the way they were talking to us.

Personally I wouldn’t take it further, it sounds like a genuine error and the injury is minor and not likely to cause long term issues. I’d say the fact that they completed the procedure which hopefully allows you to have children ( if you choose) is the most important thing. I’ve been though a similar thing and it never occurred to me to start any proceedings against the hospital.

I would not complain if I was in your wife’s shoes. I would understand that any activity like that carries a minor risk of accident . However if the burn is disfiguring or causes significant pain over and above what was to be expected she has a right to compensation that she may or may not chose to pursue .

They will have filled an electronic incident form and that will have been sent to their bosses and whoever else might benefit from it.

I’d save myself the stress and just call the person who did the mistake a ****.

The NHS are accountable to nobody and therefore not interested in complaints.

The service we have received right from the start has been amazing and very efficient.

Go ahead, complain. Everyone knows the NHS staff are superhuman and never make mistakes. You might even get compensation which might not reduce the cash resources available to other areas of the NHS

Go ahead, complain. Everyone knows the NHS staff are superhuman and never make mistakes. You might even get compensation which might not reduce the cash resources available to other areas of the NHS

I don’t believe the original poster was heading in that direction. They have obviously been through a tough time, and asking about the issue on here. No need to go to that extreme.

The NHS are accountable to nobody and therefore not interested in complaints.
Actually, every month I attend a meeting bwhere we discuss every complaint we get with the aim of ensuring that it doesn’t happen again. Sorry to spoil your Daily Mail vsions

Could you get a second opinion from a non-NHS consultant?

The only reason to complain if it can help improve procedures, or highlights that the Dr had just had to do 36hrs without a break etc (it does happen)

To be fair, saying that you have the right to complain is just covering the T&C’s so to speak.

I bet the Dr feels terrible about it, accidents happen

Actually, every month I attend a meeting bwhere we discuss every complaint we get with the aim of ensuring that it doesn’t happen again. Sorry to spoil your Daily Mail vsions

My real life experiences.

my sister sued (6 figures, in trust) because her kid got a broken collar bone because difficult birth, healthy otherwise

don’t get it, id have just been happy the kid got out safe even if an arm fell off, as surely thats better than a loss during childbirth

We’re not after compensation and certainly don’t need the money. It just felt like they were pushing us to complain but maybe I was wrong.

The NHS are accountable to nobody and therefore not interested in complaints.

Utter offensive bollocks.

Could you get a second opinion from a non-NHS consultant?

Why would I trust the opinion of someone working solely in the private sector? My dept has 12 consultants working in it, they all do more than half of their work privately.

OP, I think I’d want to ask the people directly involved how it happened and what will be done to ensure it can’t happen again

my sister sued (6 figures, in trust) because her kid got a broken collar bone because difficult birth, healthy otherwise

Hopefully they’ll make her have her next kid without their help.

…at least she has the money to have it done at a private hospital I guess.

I don’t believe the original poster was heading in that direction. They have obviously been through a tough time, and asking about the issue on here. No need to go to that extreme
No? A “superficial” burn and ” amazing and very efficient” service. Did he ask if he should complement on the amazing and very efficient service or complain about the superficial burn?

We’re seeing the surgeon in a couple of weeks for a follow up so maybe I’ll ask how it happened then.
They most important thing is that my wife is ok and we can now think about having a family.

Utter offensive bollocks.

My experience is that they’re not interested and I have the correspondence to prove it.

Go on then tell us the full story.

Go on then tell us the full story.

Hope you’re not holding your breath there

Nope, can’t do due to what’s going on right now.

Sometimes it’s worth it. We complained following undiagnosed anaemia after birth of first child. The reason for the complaint was that I knew it was the best way to get the systems reviewed. The hospital had no weekend lab cover. Which meant that blood was taken and not tested for several days. The so the severe symptoms of anaemia were noticed before the blood results came back.

Following the complain and subsequent review there is now 7 day cover in the lab which means this is unlikely to happen again. We made clear that there was no financial (compensation) angle to the complaint. Just that the otherwise perfec experience and service we received from the staff that dealt with us was badly let down by the systems put in place by management.

In the OPs example it sounds like an honest mistake, human error, which I’d guess will never happen again with any of the team involved in the procedure. If you are worried that it’s something that could happen again (which was out concern) then speak to the PALS people at the hospital involved. Or ask to speak with the lead clinician involved in the procedure.

Ps. I’m an nhs employee for many years

After the Strafford report and other findings all NHS Trust are being encouraged to run an open policy, don’t hide mistakes be open and report them. Ask clients/patients if they want to complain and explain how. Hiding mistakes means they will happen again, learning from them should hopefully stop that.

The NHS are accountable to nobody and therefore not interested in complaints.

The CQC watches all trusts they can withdraw funding closing them all together.

I imagine the eagerness to solicit a complaint is a direct result of Staffs as Drac suggested. On that note I don’t see a comparison with what went on at Staffs here. I’d be content with their reassurance the incident has been recorded and will be looked into. Surgery will always carry an element of risk. I can’t see anything will come of driving a complaint forwards in these circumstances. Presumably they will build in a fail-safe that see’s kit turned off properly. Asked to be cc’d informally into their findings and if that doesn’t provide adequate reassurance consider complaining then.

The surgeon and his team may well have enabled you and your wife to have children. You obviously know this is likely to be the most positive act the two of you will ever benefit from. If you do go on to have children and all that goes with it, a small blemish will seem trivial in the extreme – I know you know this and it’s not the point, but it’s that, that would be foremost in my mind.

Regrettably complaining is now an integral part of most people’s daily exchanges these days.

Since last October, all NHS organisations are subject to a “duty of candour” – meaning that they must contact you immediately on suspecting that any harm has been done.

Even if it’s not clear that any harm has occurred, they must still contact you and provide a clear plan of how it will be investigated. This must be done face-to-face and all outcomes recorded, plus an action plan followed.

Complaining about the event is a separate (albeit related) matter.

Evidence that you apply the DoC is a condition of registration for a provider with the Care Quality Commission (one of the NHS regulators). Serious stuff for an NHS provider.

IMO and from experience I have found the NHS and it’s staff either completely shite or completely brilliant.

With nothing in between.

Screw ’em for all their worth!
Before more budget cuts!

Honestly though, I reckon your best bet is to count your lucky stars they did not cause any real damage, THEN things would be different.

Actually when we make errors we are encouraged to apologise immediately. We want genuine complaints as we learn from them. And when I get appraised when I cannot give evidence of complaints and what I learnt my appraiser wants to know whether we are being open enough with patients.

But I can see it could come across as telling people to complain.

I think your approach seems very reasonable and I am glad that the surgery was otherwise successful. There is now a duty of candour which requires NHS staff to be open about accidents or mistakes. There is also a requirement to internally report incidents such as this and to investigate them in the hope of reducing the risk of it happening again. I find it inconceivable that this will not be happening here.

For your own peace of mind you may well benefit from a better understanding of why this happened and to that end asking for more information at the follow up seems very reasonable to me. If for whatever reason they don’t have all the information at the time, then the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) should be able to get the information for you including in all likelihood a copy of any incident report.

It’s nice to hear of the staff being concerned. My wife had an op back at the end of October and we are slowly moving closer towards making a complaint.
Her surgeon was a complete **** pre and post op and on the advice of her gp a second opinion is now being sought as the actual treatment she received seems to have been very unsuccessful.