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Public hospitals halt clinical use of two models of oxygen flowmeters
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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The Hospital Authority (HA) spokesman made the following announcement today (February 12) to halt clinical use of two models of oxygen flowmeters in public hospitals:

     The HA has recently received safety notice from Therapy Equipment Limited, a medical device manufacturer, that two models of oxygen flowmeters manufactured by the company may have potential risk. When the flow rate setting is lower than two liters per minute, the flow of oxygen may reduce suddenly within a short period of time.

     The HA is very concerned about the incident and immediately contacted the supplier for more information and sought advice from experts of respiratory medicine of the HA. The experts recommended the HA to halt clinical use of the two models of oxygen flowmeters after assessing the potential risk of the incident posing to patients. Taking into consideration the advice of experts, the HA has halted clinical use of all flowmeters concerned. The two models, with a total number of around 4000 flowmeters have been distributed to different clusters.

     The supplier is urged to arrange replacement for all of the flowmeters concerned. Before the completion of replacement, public hospitals will substitute the flowmeters by alternative models or arrange patients in need to use oxygen concentrators. The HA has informed all healthcare staff of the arrangement, and has reminded them to stay vigilant to the condition of patients on oxygen therapy, and to make suitable adjustment on the oxygen flow rate according to patient's condition. Having assessed the arrangement of replacing the flowmeters by alternative models or oxygen concentrators, the respiratory medicine experts believed that the arrangement can effectively reduce the risk of patients. The HA confirmed that no patients were affected in the incident. Public hospitals currently have enough alternative models of flowmeters and oxygen concentrators for substitution. The oxygen therapy and clinical services in public hospitals remain normal.
     
     The HA will stringently follow up the incident with the supplier in accordance with the contract requirements.
 
Ends/Sunday, February 12, 2023
Issued at HKT 18:00
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