A safety drive is to be launched by the government's health watchdog in the face of "alarming" figures on the harm patients suffer in hospital and elsewhere.

Various studies, some using US data, estimate that there is a one in 300 chance of a hospital patient dying as a result of medical error. One in 10 is estimated to suffer harm, of whom a third suffer serious harm, while studies suggest that 600 errors are made a day in primary care with more thanone in 10 prescriptions containing errors.