Baby Mix-Up Led To Cremation Error At Sydney Hospital

New South Wales health authorities have apologised over a mix-up which led to the body of a baby being accidentally cremated.

The bodies of a 20-week-old foetus whose mother had miscarried and a stillborn baby were accidentally switched last year at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, Australia, a budgets committee hearing was told on Tuesday.

Both babies were cremated, despite the desire of the family of one of them that their baby be buried.

The error occurred because an ID tag on one of the infants had been hidden by a blanket.

Royal North Shore Hospital said it had apologised as soon as the error was discovered.

In a statement, it said: "A full investigation was undertaken and the families were fully informed of its outcome.

"A number of measures have since been put in place to avoid a similar mistake being repeated in the future."

Senior state politicians were questioned during the committee meeting.

NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner told the hearing the mix-ups were "a very rare event".

She added: "Tragic, but rare, fortunately."

It was revealed at the same hearing that another patient who had died was found to have been wrongly tagged.

That was only discovered after the patient's daughter asked nursing staff to open the body bag so she could take a last picture of her 89-year-old mother and she found the ID tag was for another patient.

The state's chief health officer Kerry Chant said the incident was a "near-miss of a catastrophic outcome", because the error had been found.

Ms Skinner has been fighting calls for her to step down since the revelation in July that one baby had died and another was left with suspected brain damage after they were given nitrous oxide instead of oxygen at another hospital in Sydney.

However, NSW Premier Mike Baird has stood by her, adding that she "continues to do a good job".