Chua explains hospital foul-ups

Star: Staff communication breakdown and failure to work as a team were the reasons behind the recent administrative foul-ups at the beleaguered Sungai Petani Hospital.
Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said investigations found that some nurses and assistant nurses had failed to follow procedures.
“For example, only nurses directly involved in the delivery of babies are allowed to record the gender, but this (rule) was not followed.
“If the nurse wasn’t sure of the baby’s gender, she should have immediately called the doctor in charge,” he told reporters here yesterday.
Since June, the hospital has been in the news for all the wrong reasons after a nurse slipped an infant out of a ward, while another baby was allegedly “swapped” when a nurse wrongly stated in a form that the newborn was a boy.
On Sept 7, the gender of a baby born there was listed as “ambiguous”.
“In the case of the housewife who claimed she went into labour in full view of others, including men, the (medical) lecturer failed to inform the nurses the training was only meant for female students and nurses, not medical assistants,” pointed out Dr Chua.
Zaini Zainol, 33, who went into labour, had claimed a staff nurse at the hospital lifted her sarong up to the waist and raised her legs in full view of 10 other patients and five trainees in an open ward.
Dr Chua said Zaini was placed in an open ward since the baby had died in the womb and ceased to become a maternity case.
Asked if any action would be taken against the staff concerned in the foul-ups, Dr Chua said that was for the hospital director to decide.