An East Yorkshire NHS Trust has paid out more than £600,000 in medical negligence compensation, because of blunders made during operations.

The Hull Daily Mail newspaper is reporting that the Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, who are responsible for the Hull Royal Infirmary and the Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham, paid out a total of £672,631 after receiving seventy two compensation claims over the last five year period, of which seventeen were successful.

A freedom of information request revealed that three of the patients affected had to endure further surgery, while others suffered because of needles or swabs being left inside their bodies.

It was also revealed that two patients had received the wrong diagnosis, one hundred and fifty four were given the wrong type of medication and most alarmingly some surgeons performed operations on the wrong parts of patient’s bodies, thankfully no organs had been removed.

A spokesperson for the trust stated that all incidents regarding the safety of patients were taken ‘extremely seriously’, adding that it was important that the trust learnt from its mistakes.

Since the mistakes came to light some surgeons have been sacked, while others have had disciplinary action taken against them, or have had to re-train.