Health chiefs in east and north Hertfordshire launched an investigation after a patient was injected in the WRONG eye.

The incident – which occurred between January and March this year (2024) – is one of two 'never events' to be recorded by the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust in 2023/4.

And it was included in a report presented to the latest meeting of the Trust's board.

According to the report a 'learning review' – which includes the patient – had highlighted some areas of improvement.

These areas for improvement included the lack of 'Local Safety Standards for Invasive Procedures (LocSSIP), lack of site marking and multiple interruptions in the clinical area.

The other 'never event' involved the insertion of a nerve block in the wrong place in one of the hospitals main theatres. It happened between April and June in 2023.

According to the report, the review that followed led to a refresh of 'stop before you block posters' and to additional marking when the site of block insertion is away from site of surgery.

The events were included in a 'Quality Account 2023-24' report – dated June 2024- that was presented to the latest meeting of the board, on September 11.

And following the meeting, the East and North Herts NHS Trust issued a statement to the Local Democracy Reporting Service from chief nurse Teresa Murphy.

She said: "We are committed to ensuring our patients receive the safest and highest standards of care.

"However, we know that as in all healthcare settings, regrettably things can go wrong.

"And whilst such events are rare, when that happens, we are open and honest with patients and their loved ones, and work with them to ensure that we learn and continue to improve the quality of care we provide.

"We sincerely apologise for what went wrong for patients affected in both cases.

"Both incidents have been reviewed through the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework with learning identified and changes made to our processes, to ensure we have safe and robust systems in place to support our staff to provide the safest possible care for our patients."