At the end of October 2008, the Commons Health Select Committee was informed that between 90 and 95 % of preventable deaths in the NHS go unreported.
Howard Stoate, a practising GP and Labour MP for Dartford, said the National Patient Safety Agency’s own estimates suggest there are 72,000 preventable deaths in the NHS each year. [...]

The Guardian reported yesterday that Hospitals face NHS health checks:
“NHS hit squads will swoop on hospitals where unusually high rates of death, infection and botched operations appear to be harming or killing patients.
As the first healthcare system in the world to operate such a system, investigators from the Healthcare Commission, the NHS watchdog for England, [...]