Row 991 (Y60-Y69) - 'Misadventures to patients during surgical and medical care' - (11 males and 21 females) is worth a look.
Yeh, but it's one thing to say 'I f***ed up in a death and complications meeting, and another thing to say it on a death certificate.
It's going to be more than 21 a year. There are surgeons out there who get all heroic and do things they shouldn't, but in general it's on people who are going to die quite soon anyway. So they don't kill the patient as such, but maybe they make the final weeks a bit more uncomfortable than they should be. But hey, that's what diamorph is for
One thing that has changed recently is that in the brave new NHS world surgeons are more likely to stab their colleagues in the back for personal advancement. So any underperforming surgeons are going to be turned in by their mates a lot more than in the past. In the old days it was not the done thing, the two guys who turned in the Bristol lot had to become GPs, lol.
But in general I'd not be too concerned about going under the surgeons knife myself, and besides it's the anaethetist you should really be worried about