Are we so incompetent, anything wrong must ask international experts?

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

MRT train breakdowns must have an international experts to diagnose for us. Now SGH Hep C outbreak must also call international experts. Why we ownself cannot figure it out? We are more fucked up then I thought.

SGH Hep C cases: MOH to invite international experts to advise review committee
The Independent Review Committee is set to look into processes in both SGH and MOH to identify whether there are any gaps and areas that can be improved upon.



SINGAPORE: Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong will invite international experts to help and advise the Independent Review Committee (IRC) looking into the cause of the cases of Hepatitis C infections at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH).

He announced this on the sidelines of a community event on Saturday (Oct 17), where he also gave updates on the work of the committee.

Mr Gan said: "The committee has been working for the last 2 weeks, focusing on the cause of the Hepatitis C cases at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), looking at how it happened and to also try to determine how we can prevent it from happening in future. The committee will also look at the processes in both SGH and the Ministry of Health to identify whether there are any gaps and areas that we can improve upon so that we can strengthen our system. I have also assured the Committee that SGH and MOH will extend our full support so as to facilitate the review and to ensure that it is a very thorough review."

He added: "The committee has requested that I invite some of the experts, including international experts, to help and advise the committee, so as to ensure that the review will be a very thorough one. I support the proposal. The committee will be following up on this proposal and will make further announcements when they are ready.”

In response to queries on whether any contingency plans will be put in place to prevent similar incidents from happening again, Mr Gan said a key objective of the committee is to identify areas for improvement.

"It is for this reason that we have told the committee that SGH and MOH will adopt an open attitude because it is only by maintaining an open attitude that we can extend the full support for their work so that the review will then allow us to learn lessons from this incident to prevent this from happening and to improve ourselves so that we can do better in the future,” he added.

On Oct 6, SGH announced that it was investigating a cluster of Hepatitis C infections in its renal ward. In total, 22 patients who were hospitalised between April and June this year were infected, and SGH said it cannot rule out that Hepatitis C could be a factor in the deaths of four of these patients. Another recent death is under review.

The IRC was then established to probe the Hepatitis C cluster at SGH. The IRC is made up of seven medical professionals from the Health Ministry, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, the National University Hospital and Changi General Hospital. They include renal and liver specialists, as well as a chief nurse - all of whom are experts in their own fields.

The committee has been given two months to complete its task.

As of 1pm on Friday, a total of 485 out of 678 patients have been screened for Hepatitis C, said SGH in a statement. Among them, 441 have received their results and all have tested negative. The results of the remaining 44 are still pending, while an additional 144 patients have already made appointments for screening.

The hospital added that it has screened 284 out of a total of 319 staff members so far. 279 of them have had their results released, and all of them have tested negative for Hepatitis C.

- CNA/av


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