MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE AT PUBLIC HOSPITALS

MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE AT PUBLIC HOSPITALS

34.

Er Lee Bee Wah asked the Minister for Health in view of the heavy demands on public hospitals (a) what is the incidence of medical negligence at public hospitals over the past five years; (b) what are the procedures in place to detect such negligence; and (c) what is the course of action to prevent recurrence of any lapses.

Mr Khaw Boon Wan: Heavy demand on public hospitals should not be an excuse for any act of medical negligence. A healthcare professional may be found negligent by the court if he fails to exercise reasonable diligence and care when providing treatment and causes injury to his patient as a result.

In the past five years, the public hospitals have reported three cases of alleged medical negligence that went to trial. In three cases, the institution and the doctor were not found to be negligent.

In addition there were, on average, eight cases a year where the hospitals made an out-of-court settlement with the patients, usually as part of the mediation process. In these cases the hospital or staff concerned may have had some liability or been negligent but as the settlements are usually undertaken with non disclosure requirements, my Ministry is unable to determine the true nature of these cases.

Not all claims of medical negligence are valid. Some adverse outcomes do happen in hospitals, despite the best efforts, and may not be due to medical negligence. For example a patient can develop a serious drug allergy after receiving an antibiotic that is medically indicated for the first time. This may be an acceptable adverse outcome of the drug.

Nevertheless, we can and should learn from each adverse event. That is why we have a Sentinel Event Reporting System in our hospitals. Whenever an adverse event has occurred, the hospital's Quality Assurance Committee is required to promptly review the event to determine the root causes, recommend risk reduction strategies and follow up on their implementation. The primary aim of the review is to improve the system so as to prevent future adverse events.

All such reviews are notified to my Ministry and we monitor the follow-up actions to ensure that the corrective measures are put in place and useful lessons are shared with the larger health care community.

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