Tung Wah Eastern Hospital announces an incident of delayed specimen handling

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The spokesman for Tung Wah Eastern Hospital (TWEH) made the following announcement today (November 20) regarding an incident of delayed specimen handling:

     Staff of TWEH this morning reported that a batch of 14 tubes of blood and urine specimens collected from six patients were still kept in the collection box and had not been sent out to the laboratory of Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital for testing yesterday afternoon (November 19) as scheduled. The batch of specimens should have been sent out for testing on the same day of collection.

     Since all the blood specimens were no longer suitable for conducting laboratory analysis, ward staff had contacted the patients concerned to explain the incident and offer apologies. Blood specimens of two inpatients were collected again today and the four outpatients had been arranged to take the blood specimens next week. The involved blood specimens are for routine monitoring. The urine specimens were still suitable for testing purpose.

     According to preliminary assessment, the delay in testing for a few days to one week would not have any impact on the clinical management. The incident has been reported to the Hospital Authority Head Office via the Advance Incident Reporting System.

     The hospital apologises for the inconvenience caused to the affected patients, and will continue to closely communicate with the patients to provide the necessary assistance. Prevailing procedures will be reviewed for root cause analysis to identify appropriate improvement measures.