Public hospitals record 26 serious medication errors in first quarter

Hong Kong’s public hospitals recorded 26 serious untoward events involving medication errors in the first quarter of the year, a rise of more than 70 percent from the previous three months, the Hospital Authority said on Friday.

The figure was 11 higher than the 15 cases reported in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the authority’s latest Risk Alert bulletin.

Of the 26 incidents, 12 involved anticoagulants, making them the most commonly implicated medication. Five involved insulin or oral diabetes drugs, while one concerned medication prescribed to a patient with a known allergy.

In one case, a patient was admitted without identity documents, preventing hospital staff from verifying the person’s medical history. The patient was subsequently prescribed an anticoagulant in error.

The authority also reported seven sentinel events during the quarter, including three procedures performed on the wrong site and three cases in which medical items were left inside patients.

One wrong-site case involved a patient at Tseung Kwan O Hospital who was supposed to undergo a colostomy but was mistakenly given a gastrostomy. The patient’s condition later deteriorated and the person died after suffering cardiac arrest.

The other two cases involved the removal of a ureteric stent from the left side instead of the right, and a lumbar decompression procedure performed at the wrong spinal level.

Three other sentinel events saw items left inside patients after procedures. The items included gauze, the four-millimeter tip of a drill bit and a guidewire used in a pediatric catheter procedure.
 

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