Bosses at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro have launched an investigation after surgery was carried out on the wrong part of a patient last year.

Figures show that the 'Never Event' took place in December, with no further information available due to patient confidentiality, although the hospital has said there was "no long term harm" caused to the patient.

The NHS defines a Never Event as a serious, largely preventable patient safety incident that should not

happen if guidance or safety recommendations are followed, and they include surgery at the wrong site on the body, foreign objects being left inside a patient post-surgery, the wrong implant or prosthesis being given, and the administration of medication by the wrong route, among other things.

A spokesperson for the hospital said: "We always carry out a detailed investigation of any serious incident or never event and outcomes are shared with the patient or family concerned. "Recommendations are reviewed and discussed by the clinical teams involved and shared widely across the trust as well as, where appropriate, with the wider NHS, in order that lessons are learned and the likelihood of a similar event recurring is minimised."

NHS England has said of Never Events: "Each Never Event type has the potential to cause serious patient harm or death.

"However, serious harm or death is not required to have happened as a result of a specific incident occurrence for that incident to be categorised as a Never Event."

The the incident was the only Never Event at the hospital between April and December last year, with the health service reporting 314 such incidents throughout England in that time. In the same period ten hospitals reported four events, three reported five events, one had six and two had seven events, and Barts Hospital in London reported ten.