A new lifesaving device, designed by doctors at a Norfolk hospital, is set to hit the market this month after more than two years of development.

Consultants at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn currently have ten new inventions in the pipeline to help improve patient care.

Officials from the hospital spoke of their delight after a new arterial connector was designed by the critical care team, which prevents potentially fatal injections.

Hospital staff use a cannula to take blood samples from a patient's artery. However, in very rare, circumstances, mistakes happen where drugs are injected into an artery, instead of a vein, which can lead to skin loss, amputation and sometimes death.

The new connector, which has won innovation awards, has been designed so that it is impossible for an artery to be injected into.

The device, which has been invented with support from Health Enterprise East and is made by Amdel Medical in Liverpool, has now gone into production after receiving NHS approval. The arterial connector, which costs £4 per unit, also reduces the risk of infection.

Dr Peter Young, director of intensive care at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHS Foundation Trust, said the first 2,000 non-injectable connectors were being made for the NHS trust to use.

'You must never give an injection into an artery, which can result in amputation, and even if they get it right 99.9pc of the time, someone could make that mistake. We provide engineered solutions to make this impossible. It does not have a downside to it,' he said.

Any profits from the sale of connectors will help boost the funds of the hospital and to improve patient care.