A surgery checklist to help ensure doctors operate on the correct part of the right person was announced today.
Every hospital in New Zealand and Australia will be receive the checklist, part of a World Health Organisation initiative to reduce mortality rates and complications during surgery.
The 21-item checklist will take just two minutes to complete and will be done in three phases - before, during and after surgery.
It will include checking the patient's identity, operation site, availability of equipment and labelling specimens for testing.
Speaking at its launch, Health Minister Tony Ryall said while "most" patients received good care a Ministerial Review Group report found 44,000 people suffered unintended injury in hospital caused by the management of their injury.
Healthcare workers "suffer perpetual information overload" and it was hard for one person to remember everything.
The checklist was a "simple improvement, yet it has such a significant effect", Mr Ryall said.
"I strongly encourage all clinicians with the support of their managers to adopt the Surgical Safety Checklist in their hospitals."
The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons censor in chief Ian Civil said the list had "real potential to save lives, reduce operating room errors, and improve patient safety".
"We want to see it displayed in every operating theatre in every hospital in New Zealand and Australia."
The Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists Quality and Safety Committee chairman Professor Alan Merry said the checklist involved no additional expense to the hospital or patient.
A global trial of the list, part of which was carried out in Auckland, found death rates for surgical patients fell from 1.5 percent to 0.8 percent after its introduction.
Inpatient complications fell from 11 percent to 7 percent.
Prof Merry, who was the principal investigator at Auckland City Hospital for the trial, said the checklist was a very simple clinical tool that would have an enormous impact on preventing mishaps and associated complications.
