Released 30 May 2022
Request:
- The number of incidents of patients being burned during a surgical procedure at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust between 2018-2021 inclusive. (Please break this down year-by-year).
- The number of surgical fires recorded at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust in operating theatre settings between 2018-2021 inclusive. (Please break this down year-by-year).
- The number of patients harmed as a result of a surgical fire at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust between 2018-2021 inclusive. (Please break this down year-by-year).
- The protocols and training University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust has in place for the prevention and management of surgical fires. (If training materials such as posters or protocol documents are available, please attach these as part of your response.)
- Please list any changes of protocol which occurred directly following an incidence of harm as a result of a surgical fire at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.
For the purpose of clarity, a surgical fire defined as ‘a fire that occurs in, on, or around a patient undergoing a surgical procedure.
Information disclosed:
Please note University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust was formed on 1 April 2021, with the merger of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Since your request covers periods of time before and after the merger, it will be necessary for us to provide our information broken down by each legacy Trust and University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust where appropriate.
Our response relative to legacy Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust is provided below:
- 0 (nil) incidents
- 0 (nil) incidents
- 0 (nil) patients
- Question not applicable to the legacy Trust
- Not applicable
Our response relative to legacy Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is provided below:
- 0 (nil) incidents
- 0 (nil) incidents
- 0 (nil) patients
- Question not applicable to the legacy Trust
- Not applicable
Our response relative to University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust is provided below:
- 0 (nil) incidents
- 0 (nil) incidents
- 0 (nil) patients
- The possibility of fires associated with alcoholic skin prep and how to prevent them are discussed in theatre inductions sessions and are also covered under Band 5 scrub competencies – Please see attached pdf “Scrub Competencies – Skill 9 Surgical Skin preparation”
The Trust also has specific fire emergency plans relative to theatres. Please see attached pdf document “Fire Emergency Plan Sector 14 Theatres Redacted” for an example of one of these documents - Not applicable
Attachments:
Fire Emergency Plan Sector 14 Theatres Redacted (141kB pdf)
Scrub-Competencies-Skill-9-Surgical-Skin-Preperation (94kB pdf)