MEDICAL heroin and sedatives are among the drugs that have gone missing at Watford General Hospital over the last three years.

Figures obtained by the Watford Observer show legally controlled drugs such as morphine, methadone and Temazepam all have disappeared since 2008.

Controlled drugs are ones which are illegal to possess without a prescription.

The figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show there was a total of 50 reported incidents of controlled drugs going missing between January 2008 and August this year.

The hospital recorded 15 incidents in 2008, seven in 2009 before the number shot up to 18 in 2010.

In the first eight months of this year the figures showed there were 10 incidents of missing controlled drugs.

West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Watford General Hospital, said it had strong procedures for dealing with controlled medicines and saw no need to review them.

According to the hospital some of the reports of missing drugs arose from staff not recording their whereabouts them properly or putting them in the wrong cupboard.

One such incident involved three doses of Oramorph, morphine taken orally, which was logged in the wrong administration record.

However some of the drugs that were not found after being reported missing were the painkillers Oxycodone and morphine, as well as Temazepam, a sedative used to treat insomnia.

Records show nine tablets of Phenobarbitone, a drug used to control seizures and relieve anxiety, were also reported missing and not found.

Other drugs that went missing were an epidural bag and some pain-killing Fentanyl patches left by a patient in the hospital’s A&E.

Kelly Hickman, a spokesman for West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust said: “The Trust takes its responsibility for the safe and secure handling of medicines extremely seriously.

“It is confident that it has strong policies and procedures in place across the organisation to ensure best practice for all aspects of medicines’ use. “These are audited regularly to confirm compliance.” The trust said it had a “robust” electronic reporting system in place for staff to record incidents of missing drugs.

Ms Hickman added: “Each incident is investigated thoroughly and, where appropriate, actions are put in place to reduce the risk of reoccurrence. “The Trust reports all incidents of missing drugs to the Hertfordshire Local Intelligence Network who have raised no concerns.”