Dorset County Hospital has been accused of failing to respond to key alerts on patient safety.

The Dorchester hospital was one of 29 establishments singled out in a report highlighting the failure of NHS Trusts to take action on patient safety alerts.

The alerts identify areas of bad practice in healthcare organisations where potentially harmful situations could arise if no action is taken.

A study by Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA) claims Dorset County Hospital has 11 patient safety alerts outstanding, although the hospital claims it currently has just eight outstanding.

The alerts issued by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) can relate to issues such as high doses of drugs, but Dorset County Hospital claims a number of its outstanding alerts relate to ‘non-clinical issues’.

Pensioner Herbert Hayes experienced a traumatic stay at the county town hospital when a cannula was left in his arm following a medical procedure and he witnessed a nurse being threatened by another patient.

Mr Hayes, 76, who was on holiday in Weymouth from his home in the West Midlands when he visited the hospital, said: “I understand the staff are under pressure but patient safety should be paramount.”

The worst of the offenders identified in the report was Walsall Teaching Primary Care Trust, which had failed to respond to 23 patient safety alerts.

Despite the criticism for a number of hospitals from the MvMA, a spokesman for the NPSA said it was ‘pleased’ that 94 per cent of NHS organisations reported completion with the ‘vast majority’ of alerts.

A spokesman for Dorset County Hospital said: “We have updated the National Patient Safety Agency that we have eight outstanding alerts, not 11. Some of these relate to non-clinical issues such as approving policies and enhancing IT systems.

“Much of the work has already been completed by the hospital to implement the action plans prompted by these alerts. We would like to assure our patients that there are robust plans in place to complete the implementation as soon as possible and all but one of the alert action plans will be fully implemented by the end of the year.”