TR EMERITUS

Written by our Correspondent

A Singaporean by the name of Rajsegaran Ramasamy had written to the Straits Times Forum sharing his personal experiences of near-misses at Singapore public hospitals in response to the shocking medication error at KKH which saw two patients received days’ worth of cancer drugs in hours!

In the first example, Mr Rajsegaran wrote that a doctor ordered a blood transfusion for his father-in-law when he did not need one. It turned out that the doctor had read another patient’s blood test results.

In the second incident, in another government hospital, his father was prescribed only one type of drug to control his glaucoma condition when it was supposed to be two.

Mr Rajsegaran expressed his empathy towards the hospital staff who “are really hard-pressed to handle huge volumes of patients” resulting in fatigue and could translate into grave consequences, such as the one that happened at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH).

He added:

“It is my hope that the Ministry of Health will take a serious look at staff arrangements and numbers, and find out the reason for such lapses. It may just boil down to fatigue.”

Last Friday, two patients Mrs Poh and Mrs Ng were given chemotherapy drugs via a calibrated infusion pump over a few hours instead of days.

Mrs Poh was given the antidote to the drug 5-Fluorouracil. She is still not out of danger yet.

According to a press interview called by KKH, the error occurred because the pharmacists primed the pump wrongly. It was not revealed if the pharmacists are new staff or are they overworked.

There is no official statement or apology either from the CEO of KKH, Prof Ivy Ng, who is also the wife of Education Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen or the Minister of Health, Mr Khaw Boon Wan.

The junior doctors in public hospitals often have to work long hours without adequate rest or sleep. House officers are known to work for 36 hours non-stop from day to night.

The turnover rate for nurses is very high with many experienced staff leaving for the private sector each year. Their replacements are usually fresh local graduates from Nanyang Polytechnic or overseas institutions.

Singapore’s healthcare system is ranked among the top ten in the world. There was no immediate comment from the Ministry of Health.

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