There is very poor data on the mortuary service in the NHS in general. All we have is anecdotal evidence

Dr Ye Lin Hock, Walsall NHS Trust

The doctors who carried out the research said there was anecdotal evidence to suggest this was being repeated in hospitals across the NHS.

The study, published in the latest issue of the British Medical Journal, follows a string of recent stories in which hospitals stored bodies on mortuary floors, in lorries and in chapels because mortuaries were full.

Consultant histopathologist Dr Ye Lin Hock and colleagues examined documents for all 7,761 deceased patients in the hospital between 1996 and 2000.

The bodies had been received from funeral directors and ambulance crews as well as hospital wards.

ID checks

The doctors checked wrist bands, labels and identification papers against the patient's registration details for any discrepencies.

They found that in 1997 documents relating to one in 10 patients were inaccurate.

This included patients who had been wrongly named or whose property had not been correctly identified.

In some cases, patients with pacemakers had also failed to be identified - risking of the pacemaker exploding if the body was cremated.

By 2000, performance had improved with just 3% of patients affected.

However, the doctors said this was probably because staff had been alerted to errors during the study.

Dr Hock said the study had not identified instances where wrong identification had caused serious problems.

Speaking to BBC News Online, he added that there was anecdotal evidence to suggest it could also be happening in other hospitals.

Poor data

"It is hard to know if it is happening in other hospitals but there is anecdotal evidence.

"There is very poor data on the mortuary service in the NHS in general. All we have is anecdotal evidence," Dr Hock said.

He called on hospitals to audit their mortuaries services to ensure mistakes were kept to a minimum.

"To err is human and errors occur everywhere but it is important to put procedures in place to reduce mistakes," he said.

Dr Hock said improving the system would help to restore the confidence of patients in pathology services.