THE trust that runs Barrow's hospital has paid out more than £50,000 in damages in the past five years over medication errors.

Patients at Furness General Hospital have been given the wrong medicine more than 200 times since 2017.

That includes patients being given the wrong dose of their medication 121 times and being given the wrong medicine entirely 87 times.

The Morecambe Bay NHS trust has had to pay out £52,000 in damages for medication in that time.

The trust has also spent more than £49,000 in legal fees for medicine errors.

The data was revealed following a Freedom of Information request by this newspaper. 

The highest number of medication errors came in 2018 when there were 56.

There have been nine in 2022 up to the end of June.

No patients have died as a result of medication errors at the trust.

Trust bosses said they worked hard to review medication errors and prevent them from happening again.

Bridget Lees, the executive chief nurse at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Patient safety is our number one priority and teams work hard to ensure we do all we can to keep patients safe whilst they are in our care.

"When medication errors occur, they are reported as clinical incidents and thoroughly reviewed by the relevant multidisciplinary teams.

"These incidents are monitored on a weekly basis at a review group made up of senior clinicians from across the Trust.

"This includes a review of the incident, impact on the patient and any lessons learned to prevent errors reoccurring.

"The outcomes from these reviews are then shared widely with colleagues who administer medication so they can understand what happened and what they can do to prevent future incidents occurring. 

"They are also shared with the patients involved so they can understand what the Trust has done as a result of the incident."

According to national estimates, more than 237 million medication errors are made every year in England, the avoidable consequences of which cost the NHS upwards of £98 million and more than 1,700 lives every year.