A city hospital apologised yesterday after five patients were wrongly injected with an anti-tuberculosis vaccine during treatment for eyelid conditions.

Staff at Bradford Royal Infirmary mistook the medicine for Botox, which had been prescribed to ease blepharospasm, a muscular spasm which prevents control of the eyelids.

The error was spotted and the patients were recalled for checks which found some suffering from swellings. A spokesman for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS trust said that apologies, explanations and reassurances had been given in each case.

He said: "We very much regret what has happened. Each patient has been traced, assessed by a hospital specialist, and had a meeting with us."

The five have been put on a course of antibiotics as a precautionary measure against reactions to the BCG anti-TB vaccine.

The pharmacy unit where the mistake occurred prepares some 60,000 medicines for injection every year. The spokesman said: "This is the first error of its kind in more than a decade, during which time we have made over 500,000 individualised doses for named patients."