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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
Regarding the clinical treatment of an injured person at a traffic accident in Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), the Hospital Authority (HA) Chief Executive Mr Shane Solomon made the following statement today (June 14):
I would like to extend our care and sympathy to the injured and her family. Members of the public should rest assured that HA's first priority is to save lives, regardless of a person's financial position. Our guiding principle in charging fees is that local patients should not be charged for needed drugs in life threatening emergency situations. The above principle is followed when HA designed and reviews the HA Drug Formulary.
The incident at QEH yesterday has revealed a grey area. The drug in question i.e. Novo Seven is licensed for control of bleeding in haemophilia patients only and so is classified as a Special Drug with this specific clinical indication rather than being available widely on the General Drug list. The clinicians' judgment in QEH was that this drug may be helpful for the patient in this situation, even though the manufacturer recommends use only for haemophiliacs.
The QEH incident reveals that our system needs to be improved to deal better with emergency life threatening situations, and to support clinician judgments about the best treatment based on clinical evidence or experience. HA will review the evidence of this drug in life threatening situations beyond heamophilia patients and come up with recommendations to standardize the practices.
HA will quickly review the existing practices and come up with a mechanism to ensure that beneficial drugs are made available in life threatening emergency situations without cost to the patient which is consistent with HA's policy.
Ends/Sunday, June 14, 2009
Issued at HKT 19:46
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