KKH baby mix—up the only reported incident in last 10 years: health minister

SINGAPORE: Health Minister Gan Kim Yong told Parliament the recent baby mix—up at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) is the only reported incident in the last ten years.

Giving a detailed account of how the mix—up occurred in 2012, Mr Gan said the error came about when two babies were removed from their cots at the same time and were returned without counter—checking their identity tags.

In addition to recommendations by a review committee, Mr Gan said regular and ad—hoc audits will be carried out.

Mr Gan said: "KKH’s Patient Safety Committee will step up its oversight of patient safety and ensure supervision and compliance of protocols by staff. KKH will also undertake a comprehensive review of its quality assurance framework to further enhance patient safety. We will learn from this incident.

"It should be a reminder to all healthcare institutions in Singapore, both public and private, to strengthen their quality assurance programmes to improve patient safety and outcomes."

—CNA/ac