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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Independent Review Committee (IRC) set up by the Hospital Authority (HA) Board released a report today (July 9) regarding the incident concerning the Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) cardiology unit, which involved events leading to and following the temporary suspension of cardiovascular interventional procedures of a professor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).
The IRC was established in August 2013 and tasked to receive and review the reports by two Review Panels set up by PWH in May 2013. The IRC report, containing findings on the events surrounding the incident, reviews of the reports by the two PWH panels, and the Committee's key observations, conclusions and recommendations, was endorsed by the Executive Committee of the HA this Monday (July 7).
"Throughout the review, the IRC has regarded patient safety as an overarching consideration. The IRC has received and prudently reviewed the two Review Panels' reports with the support of two overseas experts in cardiology, each giving their views independently," the Chairman of the IRC, Mr Pang Yiu-kai, said.
The IRC agreed with the key findings and conclusions of the two Review Panels and the two overseas experts regarding the Audit on Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) and a review of 11 cases performed by the CUHK professor.
"The experts concluded that with serious limitations in methodology as well as sample size, the PCI Audit could not be used directly for drawing conclusions on an individual operator's competence," Mr Pang said, adding that the findings were treated by the experts as pointers to potential causes of concern.
Mr Pang remarked that while the issues raised in the 11 cases were complex, in a number of cases the IRC noted with concern, inter alia, the operator's knowledge, technique and skill in connection with the performance of the procedure in question; the refusal for help from team members; and the lack of adequate documentation of the procedure details.
On the key conclusions regarding the handling of the incident by PWH management, Mr Pang said that the recommendation and decision of temporary suspension of the professor were justified under the circumstances and given that the concerns raised were of a serious nature that concerned patient safety.
"The PWH Hospital Chief Executive (HCE) had not unilaterally made the decision. Due process was also followed by the HCE in the formation of the two Expert Review Panels which had deliberated independently without any influence from him," Mr Pang added.
The IRC also pointed out in its conclusion the areas requiring attention regarding the clinical governance both in the PWH cardiology unit and at the PWH management level.
The HA Chief Executive, Dr Leung Pak-yin, expressed his gratitude for the hard work and efforts of the IRC under the leadership of Mr Pang, the two overseas experts and the two PWH Review Panels in the past 10 months to review the incident and provide their valuable views and professional opinions.
"We accept the IRC report in full and will follow up with the recommendations, in particular the enhancement of clinical governance and the honorary appointment mechanism of university academic staff," Dr Leung said.
"PWH will also collaborate with CUHK to consider, in a fair and timely manner, the assessment of the professors' ability to work independently in various different cardiovascular interventional procedures," Dr Leung added.
The IRC report has been sent to all stakeholders concerned and has been posted on the HA website for public viewing at www.ha.org.hk/goto/IRC_Report.
Ends/Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Issued at HKT 18:48
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