5 patients risk infection as staff mistakes water for antiseptic solution
FIVE patients in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hong Kong, run the risk of infection after medical staff mistook sterilised water for antiseptic solution on Tuesday.
Unsterilised equipment was used to perform neurosurgery on a patient after medical staff mistakenly rinsed an ultrasound probe in a tank of water instead of antiseptic solution.
The ultrasound probe was rinsed before and after the operation.
The same sterilised water was then mistakenly used to clean equipment used for four prostate operations, reported South China Morning Post (SCMP).
The hospital admitted their blunder, but failed to explain why the same tank of water was used for instruments used in the four separate prostate operations.
The four prostate surgery patients, aged between 70 and 89, could have contracted infections from one another as a result of the blunder.
A blood test done on the neurosurgery patient, a 25-year-old man, showed he did not have any condition which he could have passed on to the four prostate patients, said Dr Hung Chi-tim, the chief executive of the Kowloon Central hospitals cluster.
Dr Hung told SCMP that the four had been prescribed antibiotics and are under close observation.
Dr Hung said: 'We had explained the situation to the patients and their relatives, and the hospital's apology was conveyed.'
The case came to light only when a staff member found that the ultrasound probe had been in the tank of water for a long time.
He then realised the tank did not contain the new antiseptic solution.
The hospital had already set up a four-man investigating team. The team will submit its report to the Hospital Authority within eight weeks.
According to Dr Hung, the ultrasound probe should be sterilised in a new antiseptic solution, introduced to the hospital only two weeks ago.
After using the solution, tools are rinsed in sterilised water to wash off the antiseptic.
Dr Hung added that the incident involved different medical staff members and it was hard to pinpoint who should be responsible.
But he added that initial investigation showed that there was a lack of labelling, and human error and a failure to follow procedure was to blame.
source:
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/st...43994,00.html? 
HK hospital uses UNSTERILISED equipment for surgery 
