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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Hospital Authority (HA) today (November 27) published the first issue of "Risk Alert", a bi-monthly newsletter to update HA staff about local and overseas healthcare risks.
In the opening message for the debut issue, Mr Shane Solomon, HA Chief Executive, pointed out that sharing and learning are the cornerstones to improving patient safety, and "it is only by increasing our awareness and understanding of the potential risks that we can prevent medical errors from occurring."
Dr Leung Pak-yin, HA Director (Quality & Safety), said, "'Risk Alert' denotes another step forward following the implementation of the HA Sentinel Event Policy on October 1, 2007, which was established to further strengthen the reporting and monitoring of adverse incidents classified as sentinel events in public hospitals."
"The newsletter will be the vehicle for sharing across HA the learning points acquired in the thorough investigation conducted for the sentinel events so as to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents," added Dr Leung.
Dr Leung appealed to healthcare professionals not to be overwhelmed by the reported incidents but to join in bringing about a positive change in patient safety.
The first issue of the newsletter covers four previously reported medical incidents which would have been classified as sentinel events; two types of "near miss" cases; statistics of the top five incidents reported from HA hospitals, and two overseas risk alerts.
"Risk Alert" will be posted on HA's intranet homepage and distributed to healthcare professionals in public hospitals. It is also accessible by the public at the HA website, http://www.ha.org.hk/riskalert.
Ends/Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Issued at HKT 18:27
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