The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust recorded 12 such incidents between 2020 and 2024, including six in 2023 alone. 

A Tyneside-based NHS Trust had more recorded errors involving an implant or prosthesis than any other NHS body in Britain. The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had 12 incidents, one ahead of the Trust with the second-most cases and at least six more than any other.

NHS England says that a wrong implant or prosthesis error is “placement of an implant/prosthesis different from that specified in the procedural plan, either before or during the procedure”.

Such errors can be considered a “never event” by the NHS, which recorded 41 cases across England between April 2024 and the end of January 2025. That included 13 patients getting the wrong intraocular lens, which is most notably used in cataract surgery, and nine people getting the wrong knee.

In total, 51 English Trusts or independent health services had claims settled on their behalf by NHS Resolution between April 2019 and March 2024. Of those, 45 paid damages, meaning a total compensation cost to the NHS of £2,598,920.

The figures from come from Medical Negligence Assist which sent Freedom of Information requests to Trusts around England, as well as Health Boards in Wales and Scotland.

Serious incidents

Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust recorded 12 between 2020 and 2024, including six in 2023 alone. The law firm received data from 121 NHS Trusts or Health Boards, and only four reported having at least six cases across the entire five-year period.

85 Trusts or Health Boards shared the number of cases recorded annually from 2020 to 2024, and only one other – University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust, which had 11 cases – a joined them in having at least one incident in all years.

Five of the 12 incidents involved an error with an intraocular lens, with two such incidents in 2023 and one apiece in 2021, 2022 and 2024.

There were three dental implant errors, including a case with an implant-supported dental bridge.

A biliary drain, a jejunostomy catheter, a Hickman Line and screws in an acetabular implant were all items cited as being involved in further errors affecting implant or prosthesis recipients.

Three ocular lens and two dental implant cases were considered to be “serious incidents” in line with NHS frameworks, with four of those cases leading to the patient suffering some degree of harm. All five incidents were reported to NHS England as “never events”.

NHS Resolution, the litigation arm of the national health service, has confirmed that Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust did not pay any compensation for wrong implant or prosthesis errors.

It did not state whether any claims against the Trust remain in progress.