The Health Service Executive is investigating an incident at Regional Hospital Mullingar where the body of a deceased patient was given to the wrong family.
Chief Operations Officer of the HSE Anne O'Connor confirmed this afternoon that the investigation was under way, and said she hopes it is an isolated incident.
"It's an important and critical thing for us so we would hope the policies and procedures in place would ensure that doesn't happen anywhere else," she added.
In a statement, the hospital said the incorrect remains were released to an undertaker from the hospital mortuary on Friday 24 April.
"Following detection, the mistake was rectified," the hospital added.
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"We would like to offer our condolences to the families and sincerely apologise for the distress this has caused during this difficult time," it said.
The Ireland East Hospital Group along with Regional Hospital Mullingar have convened their Serious Incident Management Team and are conducting an internal review.
The hospital said "processes and protocols have been reviewed within the hospital and its mortuary in order to mitigate this extremely rare event from happening again".
It is understood a person had died as a result of Covid-19 but the remains released to their family for burial, were those of another individual.
The error was noticed by hospital staff before the funeral service took place and was rectified as soon as it became apparent.
Longford-Westmeath Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy said staff at this hospital and within the HSE are working under immense pressure and that human errors can take place.
He welcomed the fact that a review into procedures and processes is underway and hoped it would confirm that this was an isolated incident.
Mr Troy said that his thoughts are with the families at this very difficult time, who he imagines are "shell shocked" by what happened.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has issued a series of guidelines in recent weeks on managing infection risks, when dealing with the bodies of those who have been confirmed to have Covid-19.
These relate to the manner in which remains are released to families and also include detailed recommendations for funeral directors.
The HSE says it is critical that these procedures are followed, to ensure that there are no errors when it comes to releasing bodies of deceased loved ones to their relatives.
