Table 5

Scenario analyses: estimated burden including other NHS services associated with primary and secondary care errors

Burden on other NHS services	Cost (£)	Bed-days/year	Deaths
Base case (hospitalisations associated with definitely avoidable primary care errors and definitely avoidable errors during overnight hospital admissions)
Total (base case)	98 462 582	181 626	1708
Primary care contacts associated with primary care errors 41
6.0% of primary care errors result in a visit to a GP	8 604 378*	–	–
· 15.41% of primary care errors result in a visit to a GP	22 098 911†	–	–
A&E attendances associated with primary care errors
16.2% of A&E attendances due to ADEs27 20.5% are avoidable27 79.8% of A&E attendances do not result in admission42	75 902 982	–	–
ICU admissions associated with errors 28
ICU admissions related to avoidable ADEs (8.1% of ICU admissions); length of ICU stay 4 days Death during ICU admission (14.0% of ICU admissions for avoidable ADEs)	5 473 747	4188	147
Post-discharge resource use associated with secondary care errors32‡
GP visits (71.7% of errors requiring treatment) Outpatient clinic visits (2.7% of errors requiring treatment) Out-of-hours visits (1.8% of errors requiring treatment)	1 702 245	–	–

*Based on 239 011 GP visits.
†Based on 613 859 GP visits.
‡Based on 5 821 746 non-elective admissions leading to 75 683 medication errors, 56 308 of which required treatment.
ADE, adverse drug event; A&E, accident and emergency; GP, general practitioner; ICU, intensive care unit; NHS, National Health Service.