Union Hospital denied concealing a blunder that stemmed from an in-vitro fertilisation procedure almost four months ago, but the health minister said it should have known about the incident.
The blunder, in which a patient underwent an egg-collection procedure in August, ended in the woman losing one of her ovaries.
The patient's private doctor booked facilities at the Tai Wai hospital and performed the egg-collection surgery on August 18. She rested for four hours and returned home without feeling unwell, the hospital's medical director, Dr Anthony Lee Kai-yiu, said.
The next morning she felt ill. Her condition deteriorated two days later and she sought treatment at Tuen Mun Hospital. Lee said the woman's severe abdominal pain did not start until her stay at Tuen Mun Hospital, which fell outside the 24-hour period for private hospitals to report mistakes. She had surgery to remove the ovary the same day and was discharged in early September.
The Health Department said the private hospital had delayed reporting the incident.
'The Department of Health received information from Union Hospital, showing that the patient was treated at Tuen Mun Hospital two days after the procedure, and the patient's family did notify Union Hospital,' Food and Health Secretary Dr York Chow Yat-ngok said. 'I believe the hospital should have known about the incident four months ago.'
The hospital should explain whether it had done adequate follow-up work. Any responsible hospital should investigate once it was notified of such incidents, he said.