Here’s an example of where a little knowledge of jargon can give you a useful lead in finding data.

The Eastbourne Herald report on an FOI-led investigation they have done into “easily avoidable mistakes, known in the health service as Never Events”:

“BUNGLING NHS staff removed incorrect teeth and carried out a biopsy on the wrong part of a patient’s body as part of a catalogue of errors in 2010 and 2011.

“…the Herald FOI found there were seven such incidents between October 2010 and November 2011.

“They included wrong hip surgery, a piece of medical equipment known as a protoscope left inside a patient’s body and a failure to remove a throat pack following dental surgery. There was also a biopsy on the wrong part of someone’s body and a guidewire left in a patient after staff fitted a central venus pressure line.”

A quick advanced search for “Never events” filetype:xls site:nhs.uk brings up a number of spreadsheets with data you can access without an FOI.

Can you do anything with it?

Tip: try changing site:nhs.uk to your local NHS websites, or try changing filetype:xls to filetype:pdf for reports.