Patients recalled over lab errors

The lab consultant has been suspended on full pay

More than 100 patients at Hereford Hospital have been recalled and a lab scientist suspended in an investigation into the individual's work.

The hospital said 40 of the 102 patients' prognosis had been worse than they had first been told and that 70 patients' treatments had been changed.

But it said no lives had been threatened by misdiagnosis.

The review began after histopathology staff, who study tissue for evidence of disease, reported their colleague.

Some 5,404 samples, from 4,654 patients, which had been worked on by the consultant between May 2006 and August 2007, were reviewed.

The consultant has been suspended on full pay and has been replaced by a locum, Hereford Hospital NHS Trust said.