A medical director at the Whittington Hospital Trust revealed an electronic system is to be introduced for staff handover sheets – because they kept getting lost.

Dr Richard Jennings told the hospital’s board meeting in November that while the new system was being sorted out, staff were being worked with to try to prevent these kind of incidents from happening.

He said some progress had been made and misplaced sheets were now, at least, being found on the same day and on site.

One suggestion made was that sheets were counted in the same way as swabs, but that idea was felt to be a slightly draconian measure.

The best solution, Dr Jennings said, was for information to be recorded electronically.

The update came during the briefing on serious incidents at the Whittington.

As of the end of October there had been 26 “serious incidents” requiring investigation.