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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The spokesperson for Queen Elizabeth Hospital made the following announcement today (July 5) regarding use of expired surgical sutures on patients:
On July 3 (Thursday), a report was made to the Cardiothoracic Surgery Department that between July to December 2013, surgical sutures (proper name: Polyester sutures) with expiry date in June 2013 had been used on patients who had undergone heart surgery. The usual shelf life of these surgical sutures is 4 years. The package was vacuum sealed and sterilised.
The hospital is highly concerned about the incident and has consulted the opinions of infection control experts regarding the risk of using expired sutures. The experts considered that it was improper to use sutures beyond its expiry date; however, they advised that the breach of sterility for briefly expired items depends also on other factors such as storage conditions and whether the packing was intact or not. However, they advised that a pack of such expired sutures not opened before use and properly stored was not likely to be contaminated and the health risk to patients was low. According to practice in operating theatres, the package of sutures usually remains unopened before use.
The number of affected patients is 239, of whom 206 are in stable condition after surgery and the remaining 33 patients had passed away due to their own illnesses. After preliminary assessment by the experts, it was opined that there was no abnormality in post-operation infection when expired sutures were used and hence the cause of death of these 33 patients was not related to the use of these sutures. The hospital is currently contacting all affected patients to arrange for health assessment. Appropriate tests will be arranged if required to ensure patient safety. A 24-hour enquiry hotline 2958 5417 has also been set up for facilitate further enquiries from affected patients and relatives.
Our hospital would like to apologise to all affected patients and the public and will make a thorough investigation with an aim to preventing the happening of similar incidents again. The incident has been reported to the hospital management and Hospital Authority Head Office (HAHO) via "Advance Incident Reporting System". Appropriate actions will be taken according to the human resources policies of the Hospital Authority if needed. The investigation will be completed in six to eight weeks and the report will be submitted to the HAHO.
In the operating theatres, a comprehensive system is in place to ensure safety in the use of medical equipment and products. After the incident, a stock-take exercise in the operating theatres has been conducted to further ensure the quality and safety of medical equipment and products. The hospital has also reminded its staff to stay alert on safety issue of medical supplies.
Ends/Saturday, July 5, 2014
Issued at HKT 19:26
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