NINE patients died and thousands more were harmed following blunders and safety issues at hospitals across Sussex.

Incidents included misdiagnoses, problems with equipment, mistakes during operations and wrong medication.

Other cases involved patients slipping and falling, problems with medical records, scans, records, confidentiality and assessments.

Most cases reported either caused no or very little harm, but hundreds of others led to more serious injuries, problems or complications.

The figures, published by NHS England, show the number of mistakes, accidents and other issues reported by hospitals between October 2014 and the end of March.

Four patients at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust died following incidents during this period and another four suffered severe harm.

Another 558 cases led to patients suffering low to moderate harm and the vast majority, 3,567, caused no harm at all.

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust recorded 3,812 incidents, of which 14 led to serious problems for patients and 1,377 caused low or moderate harm.

Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust reported 3,710 incidents, five of which were followed by a patient’s death.

Five patients suffered severe harm while 1,032 had minor or moderate complications or problems.

Hospitals say all incidents are taken seriously and a review carried out in each case.

An incident followed by a death does not always mean it was the direct cause, particularly if a patient is already very ill.

A spokesman for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals, which runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and Princess Royal Hospital in Hay- wards Heath, said: “The figures published show more than 99.8 per cent of the clinical incidents reported resulted in no permanent harm to patients.

“We take patient safety extremely seriously and with all the investigations into these patient safety incidents the families of the patient involved were fully involved and a full report was shared with them.

“We believe that by being open and transparent we have a greater chance of preventing a similar incident happening again.”

Western Sussex Hospitals director of nursing and patient safety, Amanda Parker, said: “We want our staff to be alert to potential risks, not simply to react after someone has been hurt.

“The result of that open culture can be seen in these figures – the vast majority of the incidents reported by staff involved nobody coming to any harm.

“The overwhelming remainder of incidents resulted in low harm to patients. However, any harm is one too many and we want staff to prioritise patient safety above all else, and these findings show our staff are doing just that."

An incident followed by a death does not always mean it was the direct cause, particularly if a patient is already very ill.