North District Hospital incident of suspected improper prescription of drugs
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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
North District Hospital (NDH) made the following announcement today (November 10) regarding an incident of suspected improper prescription of drugs:
The NDH received a report from Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department on November 8, which suspected that a doctor did not follow proper consultation protocols when prescribing drugs. The hospital was highly concerned about the incident and a detailed investigation was carried out immediately.
After reviewing the records, it showed that the incident involved an A&E doctor who was suspected having prescribed drugs, including two drugs under the control of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, to several patients for a period of time. The prescribed doses and durations of those drugs were also found to be unusual. The involved patients were believed to be family members of the doctor concerned.
The hospital has immediately suspended the doctor’s clinical duties and the doctor concerned is currently on leave. The hospital has reported the incident to the Hospital Authority (HA) Head Office and the Police. The hospital will fully co-operate with the Police in investigation. No other patients nor services were affected in the incident.
The HA has stringent mechanism in place to review drug prescription protocols regularly. The HA also has strict supervision and management mechanism to regulate the prescriptions of drugs under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. Upon receiving report from NDH, the HA Head Office has formed a panel to ascertain the existing mechanism is effective in supervising and managing the drug prescription protocols in public hospitals.
The HA has always attached great importance to professional conduct of healthcare staff. The HA will stringently follow up if any inappropriate behavior was found in the incident.