WRONG MEDICATION: Ronald Randall with carer Marion Lacey.

A HOSPITAL pills blunder could have put the life of a Hampshire pensioner in peril, it has been claimed.

Procedures are to be tightened up at Southampton General Hospital in the wake of the mix-up, which has been admitted by health chiefs.

An inquiry was launched by hospital bosses after cancer-sufferer Ronald Randall, being treated for an infection, was sent home with drugs prescribed for another patient.

The discovery was made by his carer, Marion Lacey, when she unpacked the 85-year-old's suitcase at his home in Somerton Avenue, Harefield, Southampton.

Mrs Lacey believes the medicine mix-up could have had fatal consequences - a claim strongly denied by the hospital, which said the steroid tablets were not harmful.

The 63 tablets were in a pharmacy bag alongside tablets that had been prescribed for Mr Randall.

"I was absolutely shocked when I found the other pills. If I hadn't bothered to check the label first I could have easily given him the wrong tablets.

"It's terrible. I may have caused someone's death by mistake. I rang the hospital straight away and told someone on the ward what had happened and they just said: 'Oh my God' and then went very quiet."

The white Prednisolone tablets - commonly used in the treatment of bronchitis and asthma - were in a pack bearing another male patient's name.

A spokeswoman at Southampton General Hospital said: "This was clearly an error that happened on the ward. This should not have happened. All the staff involved will be brought together to make sure they are doubly aware of what patients are sent home with.'' She stressed: "The drug was a steroid and would not have caused harm."

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