Surgeons performed operations on the wrong limbs and left equipment inside wounds as they sewed up patients, new figures for Sussex reveal.

Hospitals in the county have recorded 21 incidents known as “never events” in the last four years – including five operations on wrong parts of the body, misplaced gastric tubes and a plastic cap from a drip left inside the knee of a patient.

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Conquest Hospital in St Leonards and Eastbourne District General Hospital, recorded seven of the incidents between 2009 and 2012.

They included three operations carried out in the wrong place and four foreign objects left in the body after an operation.

A spokesman for the trust said: “We have been making significant strides in improving patient safety and have not had a ‘never event’ in almost eighteen months. The last one was declared in November 2011.

“We have introduced a number of controls and measures to prevent these sorts of incidents occurring.”

There were six incidents at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, including four items left in the body and an operation in the wrong place.

A spokesperson for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals said: “Never events’ are very rare and the majority cause minimal or no harm to the patients involved.

“However we realise that these incidents are called ‘never events’ because they should never happen and we have made significant improvements in recent years to try to ensure that all preventable incidents do not occur.”

Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester, Worthing Hospital and Southlands Hospital in Shoreham, had five ‘never events’, including a misplaced gastric tube.

Cathy Stone, the director of nursing and patient safety at the trust, said: “Keeping our patients safe is our first duty and so we take such matters extremely seriously – such mistakes are not acceptable.

“Each mistake has been thoroughly investigated, actions taken to ensure they are not repeated and I am pleased to say there have been no further events since August 2012.”

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Crawley Hospital, had two ‘never events’ and Brighton and Hove City PCT had one.