AN NHS trust has been forced to change hospital procedures after a patient died following a local anaesthetic overdose.
Patient Frederick Harris was given ten times more than the usual prescription of lignocaine in Wycombe Hospital after suffering cardiac arrest on February 13.
The drug is used to correct irregular heart beats.
The 85-year-old, of Orchard Leigh, Chesham, was given 600 milligrams of the drug per hour by doctors at Wycombe Hospital, when he should have received 30 milligrams per hour.
An inquest into his death last Thursday was unable to confirm whether lignocaine caused his death, but coroner Richard Hulett said it did play some part.
Shortly after the overdose came to light, Dr Adam Harper, deputy medical registrar at the time, and Dr Kalavalapalli Shyam Sunder, senior health officer, were sent for re-training in prescribing lignocaine.
Martin Leaver, South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust spokesman, said the doctors were only allowed to prescribe the drug again when they completed the training programme.
He said all medicine trolleys were now accompanied with a table showing the correct dosage for all drugs.
Mr Leaver added: 'We will be writing to the family to apologise.'
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