By Healthcare Facilities Today

A UK hospital patient bled to death during an operation after medics ­accidentally hit an emergency power off button with a cart, according to an article on the The Mirror website.

Staff scrambled to switch the electricity back on but the man was dead by the time it was running again. A senior NHS source said: “While this is an extremely rare event, it remains completely unacceptable. Hospitals have to learn lessons,” according to the article.

He was one of 39 patients who died or suffered serious harm in the past two years due to issues with the facilities, Freedom of ­Information Act figures revealed. A report of the ­incident said: “Although none of the involved clinicians felt the accidental pressing of the emergency power off button changed the outcome, the radiology suite has had a cage placed over the button,” the article said.

In another serious incident a patient was found not breathing while a ­hospital’s emergency bleep system failed, the article said. There was no alert to say it was down and experts did not receive desperate pager messages calling them to him.

Read the article.