ELEVEN patients died and thousands more harmed following mistakes and safety issues at hospitals across Sussex.

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

Other cases included problems with medical records and scans, confidentiality breaches and patients having accidents such as slipping and falling.

Most of the incidents did not cause any harm to the patient involved but others led to serious injuries, problems or complications.

In some cases they were followed by a patient’s death although hospitals say this does not always mean the incident was the direct cause – particularly if a patient was already very ill.

The figures, published by NHS England, show the number of mistakes, accidents and other issues reported by hospitals between April 2015 and the end of March.

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

A further 487 cases led to patients suffering low to moderate harm.

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust recorded 4,489 incidents, of which 18 led to serious problems for patients and 1,379 caused low or moderate harm.

Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust reported 3,643 incidents, four of which were followed by a patient’s death.

Six patients suffered severe harm while 892 had minor or moderate complications or problems.

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: “We investigate all patient safety incidents and ensure patients and their families are involved and a full report is shared with them.

“We actively encourage our staff to report any incidents that may occur as we believe that by being open and transparent we have a greater chance of preventing incidents happening again.”

Western Sussex Hospitals runs Worthing Hospital, St Richard’s in Chichester and Southlands in Shoreham.

In its recent Care Quality Commission report, which gave the trust an outstanding rating, inspectors said: “Across the hospital there was an embedded culture of learning from incidents.

“Staff were encouraged to have an open and honest attitude towards reporting mistakes and incidents that were then thoroughly investigated.

“There was strong evidence of learning from incidents both locally and across the organisation.”