Kowloon Central Cluster announces an incident of patient specimens handling
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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The spokesperson for the Kowloon Central Cluster made the following announcement today (January 9) regarding an incident of patient specimens handling:

     Wang Tau Hom Jockey Club General Out-patient Clinic (WTH GOPC) collected deep throat saliva specimen for testing of COVID-19 from five patients on January 7, which were scheduled to be sent to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital laboratory for testing together with specimens from Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital. When the collection box was returned back to WTH GOPC on January 8, clinic staff found that the five deep throat saliva specimens were still kept in the box.

     Since all the deep throat saliva specimens were no longer suitable for conducting testing, staff had contacted the patients concerned to explain the incident, offer apologies and arrange the return of deep throat saliva specimen sample to the clinic as soon as possible. The five patients concerned have returned the samples this morning of and all test results were negative for COVID-19.

     Kowloon Central Cluster is highly concerned about the incident and apologises to the patients concerned for the inconvenience caused. Concerned units have immediately reminded staff to be vigilant and pay more attention to the items transferred.  The workflow of handling specimens will be reviewed and improvement measures will be recommended to prevent similar incidents.

Ends/Saturday, January 9, 2021
Issued at HKT 19:04

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