Hospital bosses have insisted correct guidelines were followed in the aftermath of an incident which saw a feeding tube inserted into the wrong place.
The incident, which happened last month at James Paget University Hospital (JPUH) in Gorleston, occurred when a tube which was supposed to be placed in a patient’s stomach was instead put in their lung.
The mistake was deemed so serious it was labelled a ‘never event’.
Speaking at the JPUH board of directors meeting yesterday, director of nursing Julia Hunt praised staff for following the correct guidelines in response to the incident.
“Obviously we do not want a never event to happen but the correct guidelines were followed after the incident,” she said.
“Staff immediately recognised what had happened and were honest with the family. An investigation is now under way to see what can be done to prevent this happening again.”
Including the never event, there were five serious incidents reported at the hospital in February.
Misplacing the tube can be fatal and the NHS put out an alert over these incidents in 2016.
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