A child had their kidney removed "unnecessarily" by surgeons at Alder Hey Children's Hospital.
The surgery has been classed as a "serious incident" by hospital management, after a Morbidity and Mortality (M&M) conference which discussed the case.
Serious Incident reports from the children's hospital revealed that there was a "clinical disagreement" about whether the procedure, called a nephrectomy, needed to be reported on an IT system called Ulysses, where serious incidents are logged.
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The report stated: "The Consultant Surgeon had known about the incident and informed the family of the potentially unnecessary nephrectomy in March 2020.
"However, the incident was not reported at that time due to a difference of clinical opinion.
"Subsequently, the incident was formally discussed during a surgical M&M meeting in August 2020, at which point the Consultant Surgeon agreed that the incident should be reported on Ulysses.
"The incident was reported on the 20th August 2020 and from this point duty of candour was followed in a timely manner, including discussion with family, formal letter of apology and details about the investigation process."
The reasons for the removal have not been made clear, although it was described as oncological surgery meaning it may have been related to cancer treatment.
In response to the error, Alder Hey described making changes to routine pre-surgery and and said a working group would review processes across the trust.
When contacted by the ECHO, a spokesman for Alder Hey said: "This is a complicated case concerning a very poorly child.
"The decision to remove a kidney was made based on the clinical evidence available at that time.
"On review after follow-up of the child’s condition and with further clinical evidence, it was concluded that we didn’t need to remove the kidney.
"As part of our duty of candour we immediately reported this to the patient’s parents to explain what had happened, to apologise and to invite them to participate in a review of the case.
"Following this, lessons have been learned and actions were identified which have now been implemented."
