Blood specimen labels should contain patients' personal details and laboratory staff should handle one sample at a time, a report into a mix-up at United Christian Hospital in October has recommended.
The blunder at the hospital saw a 73-year-old man receive blood he did not need and delayed a transfusion for a new mother suffering from postnatal anaemia.
Blood samples of the two patients, who were being treated in different departments of the hospital, were sent to its laboratory for testing on October 14.
But one of two technologists working at the laboratory mistakenly swapped the labels on the samples.
This resulted in the male patient, who was being treated for general geriatric conditions, being diagnosed with anaemia and receiving two bags of blood based on the lab report, Luk Che-chung, chief executive of United Christian Hospital, said on October 16.
Meanwhile, a transfusion for the 24-year-old female patient, who had just given birth, was delayed for 10 hours.