News.com.au | December 26, 2012

A MAN was given anti-psychotic drugs after he was mistaken for an escaped Graylands patient, having been picked up by police and detained at the hospital. 

The shocking incident occurred earlier this month and authorities did not realise they had made the blunder until after they gave the innocent man a cocktail of powerful drugs.

The man fell ill after being given the drugs and needed hospital treatment.

An investigation into the incident is now underway.

The series of events started after a patient at the hospital left without permission in mid December.

Police were called to help locate the patient and several days later, a man with the same description of the escapee was brought back to Graylands by police where he was wrongly identified by hospital staff as the runaway patient.

The man was subsequently given a batch of antipsychotic drugs but it caused an adverse reaction and he was treated overnight in hospital.

The “real” missing patient eventually returned to Graylands.

Health authorities and WA Police have both launched their own investigations into the incident.

WA Mental Health Minister Helen Morton has reportedly apologised for the blunder and labelled the incident a “dreadful mistake.”