Editorial | Hong Kong medical blunders reveal systemic issues
Errors will occur from time to time; what is important is how the authorities respond and ensure that similar mistakes do not happen again
Medical blunders inevitably draw attention, and rightly so as long as the result is improvement rather than paralysis of life-saving systems. So, it is good that Hong Kong authorities will step up training for intern doctors and work with the city’s two medical schools to ensure there is adequate student practice.
The moves announced on Sunday by Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau followed two mistakes by hospital trainees who reportedly misread X-ray scans leading to the wrongful placement of feeding tubes. Lo said repeated mishaps could no longer be viewed as individual cases and reflected a “systemic problem”.
He pledged to strengthen training, especially on procedures used in the recent mishaps, and stressed a need to improve service quality and ensure the public “will not be that worried” about the procedure.
Specific areas are being considered, including a need for public hospitals to boost support to interns by encouraging them to consult senior staff. Lo also said training of doctors by the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong must be reviewed since graduates are given provisional licences to practise.
The latest error was last week at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, where a laxative was delivered to a 76-year-old patient’s lung rather than his stomach because of a misread scan. In June, an intern doctor at Queen Elizabeth failed to interpret an X-ray, leading to the incorrect placement of a feeding tube in a 61-year-old patient’s lung.
