NHS Grampian has apologised “unreservedly” today after an air ambulance called to the aid of a poorly baby was sent 120 miles in the wrong direction.
Health chiefs launched an investigation after the King Air plane, which was carrying an incubator on board, took off for Shetland instead of Orkney.
A spokeswoman for NHS Grampian confirmed today that an error was made by a member of staff while arranging the transport.
She said: “NHS Grampian would like to apologise unreservedly to the family involved in this incident. We would also wish to apologise to our colleagues in the Scottish Ambulance Service.
“Following an initial analysis of the timeline of last Friday’s events it is clear that a member of NHS Grampian staff made an error during the process of arranging transport. This led to the Scottish Ambulance Service aircraft wrongly travelling to Shetland.”
She continued: “We must stress that this is an extremely unusual incident. We have seen nothing to suggest this was anything other than an isolated mistake.
“We are continuing to investigate further and co-operating with the Scottish Ambulance Service. We are contacting the family involved to keep them updated and to offer to meet with them should they wish.”
The infant was eventually transferred safely to Aberdeen, and has since returned home.
The Scottish Ambulance Service stressed that the air ambulance quickly diverted to Orkney after the error was revealed.
However, after receiving the request shortly after 7pm, it took nearly nine hours for the aircraft to arrive in Kirkwall and retrieve the patient from Balfour Hospital at around 1.45am.
A spokesperson for the service said: “We received a request from a member of NHS Grampian staff in Aberdeen at 19.05 hours on Friday 17 March to retrieve a patient from hospital in Shetland.
“We dispatched our fixed wing air ambulance from Aberdeen and it dropped off our team and equipment in Shetland at 21.57 hours.
“Shortly after arriving in Shetland, our team was advised that the patient they had been sent to retrieve was actually in Orkney.
“Once we were made aware of the error, our fixed wing air ambulance returned to Shetland to transfer the team and equipment to Orkney.”
They added: “This is an extremely unusual occurrence and we have been reviewing the circumstances around the initial request with NHS Grampian.
“We have written to the family inviting them to meet with us to discuss the circumstances around the transfer.”
