BLOOD supplies sent to Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital were wrongly labelled in a potentially lethal mix-up.

Patients were only saved from being given the wrong blood after staff noticed the mistake.

As many as 20 bags with different types of blood had been given the same barcode number at the Bristol blood centre that now controls supplies. Receiving the wrong blood type can kill a patient.

One insider told the Oxford Mail: "There were several bags with exactly the same numbers as other bags. You should never have two bags with the same computer number.

"If you confuse one with another, you could potentially give the wrong one to a patient."

Peter Bowell, former laboratory services manager at the Oxford Blood Centre, said: "There is a one in three chance of a patient dying if they are given the wrong blood type.

"It seems this was picked up only due to the vigilance of staff in Oxford. This is an accident waiting to happen."

It was only when hospital staff noticed that a separate blood type letter - A, O, and so on - labelled on each bag was not the one they wanted that the alarm was raised.

The hospital informed the National Blood Service in Bristol, which is issuing new guidance to hospitals from today.

Oxford West and Abingdon MP Dr Evan Harris renewed his call for Oxford to be put back in charge of testing donated blood.

He said: "We warned this computer system was not adequately funded. I want Oxford to be re-instated as a processing centre to stop this kind of thing happening." Hospitals still use a code number system that was set up when blood was collected along regional boundaries.

The six-digit code allows up to 1m variations, which was enough to give each of the 140,000 units of blood in the Oxfordshire region a unique number every year.

But last year, the National Blood Service began collecting blood according to much larger zones, covering several counties. Oxfordshire's laboratory was closed and blood processing and labelling carried out in Bristol.

Oxfordshire is in the Midlands and south-west zone, where 800,000 units of blood are collected each year. This has increased the risk of numbers being used more than once.

The National Blood Service also puts a unique new code number on the bags, but most hospital computer systems have not yet been converted to be able to read them.

Sue Cunningham, communications manager for the National Blood Service, confirmed bags with duplicate labels had been sent out.

She said: "A few other hospitals in the zone were affected, but it was the John Radcliffe which picked it up.

"New labels have been ordered and we will send out more guidance to hospitals that should contain the problem."

She said it was up to hospitals to pay to be converted to the new 15-digit system, which ensured unique blood bag numbers.

But Mr Bowell said the service's restructuring was intended to save hard-up hospitals money when buying blood.

"Hospitals are now being asked to pay up for a new computer system made necessary because of the restructuring," he added.

No-one from the John Radcliffe Hospital was prepared to make an official comment.

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