The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:     ​
     
     ​The Hospital Authority (HA) today (January 30) published the latest quarterly issue of "HA Risk Alert" (HARA) along with the Annual Report on Sentinel and Serious Untoward Events as a risk management and communication initiative to further strengthen incident reporting and the sharing of lessons learned for safety improvements in public hospitals.
      
     In the third quarter of 2025 (July to September), there were seven sentinel events reported, comprising three cases of retained instrument/material after surgery/interventional procedure, three cases of inpatient suicide and one case of surgery/interventional procedure involving wrong body part. Moreover, all 11 reported serious untoward events were related to medication errors.
      
     "Subsequent to the incident reviews and analyses of the root causes of these incidents, important lessons for patient safety have been identified, while recommendations are made and shared in this publication to avoid similar events in the future," the HA spokesperson said.
      
     The HA also released the Annual Report on Sentinel and Serious Untoward Events covering the 12 months from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025. A total of 27 sentinel events and 76 serious untoward events were reported during the period. Among the serious untoward events, there were 73 and three events related to medication errors and patient misidentifications respectively. The Report has been endorsed by the HA Board.
      
     The Annual Report on Sentinel and Serious Untoward Events and HARA are distributed to healthcare workers and are accessible to the public through www.ha.org.hk/report/sentinel_event and www.ha.org.hk/riskalert. HARA is published on a quarterly basis and posted on the HA website in the months of January, April, July and October. The next issue is scheduled for April 2026.

Ends/Friday, January 30, 2026
Issued at HKT 16:00

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