Up to 130 patients are being harmed every year in Scotland because of mistakes by poorly trained and inexperienced anaesthetists, a study has found.

Analysis of surgical deaths between 1996 and 2006 found 1,300 cases in which the use of anaesthetics was an “area of concern”.

Most of the errors were made by junior medics who were asked to perform tasks beyond their ability and who failed to ask advice from senior members of staff. In some cases their mistakes led to patients being given the wrong medicines or inappropriate doses, causing fatal respiratory and cardiac problems.

The findings, published in the journal, Anaesthesia, have raised fresh concern over the training of junior doctors and the extent to which patients are killed or injured by medical errors.

Senior consultants insist the rate of errors by anaesthetists has dropped dramatically in recent years, but have warned that attempts to reduce doctors’ hours are threatening patient safety.

They claim the European Working Time Directive (EWTD), which came into force in August, limiting hospital staff to an average working week of 48 hours, is affecting the amount of “hands-on” training.

Doctors at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary reviewed data held by the Paisley-based Scottish Audit of Surgical Mortality (SASM). They discovered that in 364 cases, pre-operative assessments to determine conditions such as heart problems were deemed “inadequate” and in almost 300 cases the anaesthetist was too junior or “failed to seek advice”.

Patients in shock are particularly prone to cardiac arrest as anaesthetics can cause blood pressure to drop. Other complications, such as poor or incorrect techniques, leading to respiratory and cardiac problems, were identified in 295 cases.

“We have addressed the issues raised by this study and there is much greater involvement by consultants in patient care,” said Dr Nick Pace, clinical director of theatre anaesthetics for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and chairman of SASM.

Pace said there was concern that the introduction of the EWTD had limited the amount of “hands-on” training given to junior doctors. “Training hours are less than what they were five or ten years ago,” he said.

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