Hospital bosses are working on an action plan to prevent the repeat of a surgical blunder which badly-damaged the eyesight of elderly patients.

Brighton Health Care NHS Trust, which runs the Sussex Eye Hospital, drafted the plan earlier this year in the wake of an independent report into the Gatwick Park eyes mix-up.

The plan involved drawing up new guidelines for East Sussex surgeons working in hospitals outside the county so they could become familiar with different operating staff and theatres.

New guidelines also cover how operations contracted out to other hospitals are organised, storage of medication and follow-up care after surgery.

In February 1999, the trust sent 20 elderly patients to the Bupa Gatwick Park Hospital, in Surrey, for cataract operations to help reduce NHS waiting lists.

On three consecutive Saturdays the patients, from Brighton and Hove, were injected with the wrong form of methyl cellulose, a fluid used to keep eyes moist during surgery.

Total compensation payouts for the affected pensioners could top £300,000.

Sussex Eye Hospital care centre manager Ian Coldrick said: "The independent inquiry recommendations have been adopted by the trust.

"Of the 19 cases affected, six are still being followed up while the rest of the patients have been discharged.

"Two of the patients being followed up have required a corneal graft that has now restored their vision."

One of the patients has since died of an unrelated cause.