A TOTAL of 27 serious blunders were made by staff at Whipps Cross University Hospital last year.

The figure means the Leytonstone hospital performed worse than other London hospitals such as Whittington Hospital, Islington, which had a total of three, but better than both Newham and Barts and the Royal London, which had 36 and and 87 respectively.

The mistakes, known as Serious Untoward Incidents (SUIs), were among thousands of errors made by NHS workers last year as staff shortages continue to take their toll, resulting in misdiagnosis and even death.

However, SUIs do not refer only to mistakes made in the care and treatment of patients and can also be other major errors such as losing confidential patient details.

The total at Whipps Cross included the theft of a desktop computer from Elizabeth ward at Whipps Cross in February.

The computer, which was password-protected, contained private details of as many as 550 patients and included names, dates of birth, treatment information and diagnoses.

Computers have been stolen from the hospital in the past but this was the first instance of a machine containing this kind of data being taken.

A spokeswoman for Whipps Cross said the number of mistakes made at the hospital was minor in comparison with the number of patients treated there annually.

She said: “Each year more than 400,000 patients receive care at Whipps Cross University Hospital and the trust is committed to ensuring patient safety is a top priority.

“Where care falls short of the trust’s and its patients’ expectations, this can result in a very small number of Serious Untoward Incidents.

“The Trust works hard to ensure that cases such as these are kept to a minimum.”

The exact nature of the blunders made at the hospital was not released as some of them relate to confidential patient data.