Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan apologizes to victim of KKH medication error in person
December 10th, 2009 | 
Author: Written by Our Correspondent
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan made a personal trip to Kandang Kerbau Hospital to apologize to one of the victims of the medication blunder Madam Poh in person three days ago.
Madam Poh was given an overdose of chemotherapy drug over hours instead of days by two pharmacists who used the wrong infusion pump. She is currently recuperating in KKH.
Mr Khaw wrote on his blog that he was stopped before he could finish his sentence.
He heaped praises on Madam Poh and her family for their magnanimity:
“I apologised to her but she stopped me before I could complete my sentence. This is truly a wonderful family, brought up with sound decent human values. We had a good chat, about many things, including LASALLE’s art therapy as her son is keen on guitar music.”
When interviewed by Chinese paper Lianhe Wanbao, Madam Poh said she was very touched by Mr Khaw who spent 20 minutes speaking to her and her family.
Her husband, Mr Yap said that they had already forgiven to two blundering pharmacists and hoped that they would not be sacked by the hospital.
A devout Buddhist, Mr Khaw who just celebrated his 57th birthday also shared some of his life philosophy with his readers:
“At 57, I have learnt not to get too excited with good news, nor too depressed with bad news. Every dark cloud will eventually pass; just as sunshine does not last forever.
The key is to stick to basic values in life: do as many good deeds as possible, even if minor; do no bad deeds, even if they seem slight.”
One of Mr Khaw’s birthday wishes is to see his daughter recover fully from an injury sustained during a road traffic accident last week.
She was apparently knocked down by a taxi and had been discharged from the hospital.
Mr Khaw declined to divulge more details when asked by reporters.
Read Mr Khaw’s blog here
Copyright © The Temasek Review, 2009
Interview source: Lianhe Wanbao, 9 December 2009
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We must never have Mediocre performance. Not that there is. Is there?
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I wonder if he let the taxi driver who knocked his daughter off just before the cabbie can finish his apology? It would be just “sound decent human values”.
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If he thinks he is so kind-hearted, than do something to lower the medical cost and not simply brush away problems by sending Singaporeans, who can’t afford medical fee, to JB and Batam. Besides, what value does he think PAP has when the party he joined as no compassion for Singaporeans except greed.
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hi there
1. ah cow should receive some performance award from sinkie mediacorpse, super pretentious.
2. i for one, will sue the establishment for the wrongdoings.
3. what is there to “forgive”, not that the procedure is foc.
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sorry i dont buy it!
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I always admire people who has the courage to spologise instead of trying to defend their mistakes. In this instance, Minister Khaw has gained my total respect and I am beginning to find that he really tried very hard to care for the people of Singapore. Keep it up.
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SURE SIGN that Erection is cumming!!!!!!!!!
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According to the Ministry of Health, there were 401 hospital errors reported over the past seven years, or about one every week.
Why chose the highest profile accident and brag about it? Is it because the KKH ones are reported by the news? By apologizing when TR had questioned the lack of it is very pretentious however commendable. He should apologize 401 times.
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Apologies cost no money.
Let’s see him put the money where his mouth is and start lowering medical cost across the board.
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Mr Khaw seems like a kind man. But why is the Health Minister apologizing instead of the CEO of Kandang Kerbau Hospital? Why hasn’t the Health Minister taken the hospital’s management to task over the incident?
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kittykat on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 11:46 am
Its good that he had apologised but I do wish that you will do some research on his health care policies which are basically adding to the riches of the government coffers instead of benefiting the elderly or the poor. When will Singaporeans awaken to realities?
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kudos to khaw for apologizing.
However, i must stress that though i respect khaw’ character, i wouldn’t want politics to be a competition of “who is nicer”game.
personal ethics should not be mixed up with political ethics.
if not, we may get leaders who are nice but who craft poor policies and leaders who are not nice but craft good policies. of course, there are those who are nice and wise and those not nice and unwise.
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There is more that meets the eye. Remember there are 2 victims in the KKH medication blunder: Mdm Poh (more correctly Mdm Ng POH Hung) and a Mrs Ng. Mrs Ng’s son, Mr Ng Chun Kiat has written in his blog that in fact, it was her mother, Mrs Ng who alerted KKH about the medication error, thereby saving both herself and the other victim from a much more serious situation. KKH tried to whitewash the incident but it was the effort of Mrs Ng and her family which brought this blunder to public attention.(see http://chunkie84.blogspot.com/ for the details).
The Ng family should be lauded for their public-spiritedness but was treated instead with disdain by the authorities for being the whistle-blower. That the MOH and the MSM pretend that there is only one victim and the situation is amicably resolved is a distortion of reality and is particularly distasteful. This is unbecoming of a public agency in MOH and unbecoming of a minister in Khaw Boon Wan.
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“The key is to stick to basic values in life: do as many good deeds as possible, even if minor; do no bad deeds, even if they seem slight.”
Dear Minister
Is it “basic values in life” for the Institute of Mental Health, which incidentally is under your Ministry of Health be used to detain those who are being criminally charged if they refuese to plead guilty, as reported on TR in a case involving a pro bono client of lawyer Chia Ti Lik?
Ditto, a taxi driver who was detained in IMH for one week until he was ordered released by the High Court, as reported in the ST?
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I want to see how Khaw and his
family treat the taxi driver who
was so suay as to knock down a
minister’s daughter.
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1. Steve Wu on Thu, 10th Dec 2009 4:58 pm
Good point, we need more whistle-blowers to highlight the wrongs which are occurring not only in the hospitals and polyclinics but also in other govt departments, we need to expose the money making “scandals”, some specialist doctors are behaving more like sale people rather than doctors!
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crocodile’s tears…
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