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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) made the following announcement today (August 29) regarding a medication incident:
On August 25 afternoon, due to misplacement of a new born baby by her mother into the crib of another baby, a nurse gave her an injection of 105mg of penicillin by mistake without cross-checking the name tags on the baby's hand and foot. This was discovered later when another nurse later was about to inject another dose of antibiotics to the baby. It was found that the dosage of penicillin was 28.5mg higher than the required dosage. The incident was reported to the supervisor immediately. Physical examination and risk assessment conducted for the baby confirmed that she has not suffered from any adverse effect. The hospital met the parents on the same day to explain the situation and extend an apology.
The baby was transferred to the ward earlier on August 20 for a seven-day course of antibiotics treatment. Her condition was stable and was discharged yesterday (August 28).
The hospital was very concerned about the incident. The concerned staff was counselled and reminded to follow drug administration procedures and guidelines. Her performance will be monitored and will be subject to disciplinary action according to human resources policy.
PWH would like to extend an apology again to the family of the baby and will make every effort to prevent a recurrence of such incident in future.
Ends/Saturday, August 29, 2009
Issued at HKT 23:06
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