There were 209 serious incidents at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust in two years, the latest figures show.

The data, gained through a freedom of information request made by Blackwater Law, applies to April 2015 to March 2017 and shows the trust is the third highest in London behind Barts Health NHS Trust and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust with 290 and 225 incidents respectively.

The NHS defines a serious incident as something that led to avoidable death, serious harm, prolonged pain, barriers to providing care, abuse allegations or adverse media coverage. The NHS class them as events which trusts can learn from.

The trust said its own revised figure since the firm’s report was published was 196 incidents.

Blackwater Law solicitor Jason Brady said: “It is crucial to remember these are not just statistics. Each incident is a patient and a family that may be suffering, potentially unnecessarily, with possible long-term implications for their future and quality of life.”

The figures show pressure ulcers as the most common serious incident with 63 recorded. There were also 22 deep tissue injuries and 19 slips, trips or falls. There were 14 incidents of delayed treatments also among the total.

Karen Hunter, deputy chief nurse at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust said: “Reporting incidents is a really important part of building a culture of safety and safety awareness.”

She argued that as the number of incidents reported increases, the number of incidents which involve harm to patients decreases.

“We’re really proud of the significant progress we’ve made over the past two years. From being one of the bottom-performing trusts in the country, we are now among the better performers in reporting incidents. The evidence shows we are reporting a significantly reduced number of serious incidents,” she said.

“Patient safety is our top priority, so we keep improving the processes around how staff can report and follow up on incidents.”

The data shows that 40,668 serious incidents were recorded across 228 NHS trusts in England and Wales during the April 2015 to March 2017 period.