North District Hospital announces an incident of blood products handling
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The spokesperson for the North District Hospital (NDH) made the following announcement today (September 20) regarding an incident of blood products handling:
The blood bank of NDH was notified by the Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service (BTS) on September 9 that four units of plasma were found inside a blood product container returned from the hospital. Given the concerned units of plasma had been put in room temperature for more than 30 minutes, they were not suitable for patient use.
According to the preliminary investigation by the department concerned, the four units of plasma were sent to the North District Hospital blood bank from BTS on September 8. Due to communication problem, the blood bank staff did not store the four units of plasma into the freezer and left them in the container after completing the registration process. The container was subsequently returned to BTS on the next day.
The hospital is highly concerned about the incident and has reported to the Hospital Authority Head Office today. To prevent similar incidents from happening again, the hospital will set up an investigation panel to conduct an indepth review on the workflow of receiving and handling of blood products in the blood bank, make recommendations on improvement measures and enhance staff training on incident reporting mechanism.
The blood bank receives blood products provided by BTS regularly to maintain sufficient stock. There has been a stable stockpile of plasma, no patient treatment has been affected by the incident.
The hospital would like to extend its sincere apology to the blood donors and the general public regarding the incident.
Ends/Sunday, September 20, 2020
Issued at HKT 21:03
Issued at HKT 21:03
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