Adverse events that contribute to deaths of patients while they are under surgical care have fallen steadily over the past five years in Scotland.

Figures from the 2002 Scottish Audit for Surgical Mortality show that poor standards of care caused the deaths of 12 patients who had been expected to survive and made a substantial contribution to a further 221 deaths.

The most common problems were delays in surgery, missed and delayed diagnoses, operations being done by inexperienced junior staff, and …