Two hospitals got same wrongly labelled blood

A UNIT of incorrectly labelled blood recalled from a maternity hospital was inadvertently sent to another hospital because of poor quality control at the Irish Blood Transfusion Service.

Documents released under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request reveal the blood in question was supplied to the Erinville Maternity Hospital in Cork with the incorrect hospital number, before being recalled and sent on in error to Cork University Hospital (CUH).

The Irish Medicines Board, who became aware of the error in an inspection of the Munster Regional Transfusion Centre (MRTC) of the IBTS, said: “The most serious impact could be that a unit that had been recalled could be re-routed to Cork University Hospital, thereby having the potential to cause harm.”