An alarming report by the National Patient Saftey Agency (NPSA) has claimed that hospitals gave 24,000 patients the wrong treatmet last year. That's about 500 patients a week.

Nearly 3,000 errors were made due to confusion over patients and their care which led to mistakes that caused death or long term harm.

Hospitals have been told to standardise the wristbands worn by patients in an attempt to cut out these mistakes.

It's believed that the different systems that exist in hospitals are becoming confused when hospital staff change jobs and are unfamiliar with the system in their new department or hospital.

Guidelines have been issued stating that patients should be issued with white bands with black text that should be printed. The bands should include

Those patients who suffer from allergies or those who don't wish to recieve blood products should be issued a red band with black writing.

Helen Glenister, deputy chief executive of the NPSA said: 'This will help frontline staff, who work in different NHS hospitals across England and Wales to make patient care safer.

"Wristbands are an important safety check in patient identification but do not take away the need for clinicians to check identification directly with patients.

"In cases where patients are unable to provide their own details because they are critically ill, unconscious, confused or cannot communicate, wristbands providea vital backup."

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