At least nine people died because the NHS used syringe pumps that did not meet internationally approved safety standards in a bid to save cash, it has been claimed.
Thousands of lives were put at risk as Britain’s health service continued to use equipment which other countries had banned, an investigation by The Sunday Timesreports.
Experts say the number of fatalities linked to the pumps may actually be many times higher – but no record was ever made because of “institutional indifference” to elderly patients in their final days.
Doctors had long been concerned that staff confusing two different models of the same pump – the Graseby MS26 and Graseby MS16A – could result in a day’s dose of drugs being delivered to a patient in a single hour.
The NHS itself gave the instrument a rating of one star out of five in a 2008 procurement guide.
Yet despite these warnings and concerns, the service's National Patient Safety Agency waited until 2010 to issue a rapid response report warning hospitals that a number of deaths – including four in the previous year – had been caused by the pump’s safety flaws.
Even then, health bosses decided against an immediate recall and instead actioned a five-year phase out.
The decision was made, at least in part, because of the financial implications of immediate replacement. Documents attached to the NPSA are reported to suggest a full recall would have cost the NHS £37.6 million.
Explaining the decision to phase-out the pumps, an official briefing note sent to NHS chief executives in 2010 says: “Longer periods of transition will reduce cost…However, prolonging the use of both types of devices increases the risk of confusion and therefore error.”
The Sunday Times say it has identified at least four more deaths linked to the pumps since then.
In June, the then health secretary Jeremy Hunt said he would examine if the pumps should have been taken out of service sooner.
“We need to be absolutely certain that the NHS does react as quickly as possible when you have suggestions a piece of equipment is not safe,” he said. “Urgent guidance was sent out in 2010 and they were finally removed from use in 2015 but we will look at whether that was as quick as it should have been.”
