Up to 19 people have offered to donate a kidney to the victim of a hospital blunder whose only healthy kidney was removed by mistake.

A hospital spokesman confirmed that the offers had been made to 69-year-old Graham Reeves - who remains in a critical condition.

But, the spokesman added, a transplant was in appropriate.

Not only is Mr Reeves too ill to undergo the surgery involved but live donations by anyone other than a close relative is virtually unheard of.

Meanwhile, two prominent urologists from the Royal College of Surgeons are due to begin their inquiry into how the wrong kidney was removed.

The inquiry was called after surgeons at the Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli spotted their mistake last month.

The surgeon who led the operating team, Consultant John Roberts 58, is on leave from his duties.

Independent inquiry

The two experts, Keith Parsons and Fletcher Dean, President of the British Association of Urological Surgeons, were called in to undertake an independent inquiry by the Assembly.

The hospital has carried out its own investigation and local MP Denzil Davies has called for a further independent inquiry.

Jane Jeffs, Chief of Wales's Community Health Council said the public's confidence in the NHS had been shattered and said it was crucial that an independent inquiry was carried out.

She has called for more money to be injected into more rural hospitals to ensure they attracted good staff.

"The underlying problem we have at the moment is that the NHS is underfunded," she said.

"We just don't have enough doctors, we don't have enough nurses, we don't have enough organisers to make sure the system is working properly.

The hospital has also confirmed that it mistakenly told another patient he had an "abnormal" blood test.

Staff told the man his blood sample results indicated he could have a medical problem after a testing machine malfunctioned.

The 37-year-old patient, who is reported to be considering legal action against the hospital, was notified within 24 hours of the error and an apology issued, the Carmarthanshire NHS Trust said.