A screenshot showing that a medical staff at the Saint Paul Hospital’s Microbiology Department cuts an HIV test strip in half – PHOTO: THANH NIEN

The municipal Department of Health on December 17 issued the report on the preliminary inspection results of the purchase, management and use of quick HIV and Hepatitis B tests at the Hanoi-based hospital, reported Thanh Nien newspaper.

Specifically, Chu Thi Loan, deputy head of the hospital’s Microbiology Department, ordered her subordinates to receive 40 HIV Combo test strips free of charge from private medical equipment supplier Luc Tinh Company.

The Microbiology Department admitted that it did not report the receipt and use of the test strips to the hospital’s managerial board.

On receiving the package, Loan demanded her staff cut the test strips in half to verify results using Alere HIV-1/2 test strips. The cut strips were used to perform tests on 80 blood samples. However, it produced 1,272 test results from the 80 strips, the Health Department pointed out in the report.

The Microbiology Department has therefore failed to comply with the hospital’s regulations on the receipt of gifts and the use of cut test strips to verify results using Alere HIV-1/2 test strips.

Further, the cutting of HIV Combo test strips went against the manufacturer’s directions, according to the report.

Tran Thi Nhi Ha, deputy director of the municipal Health Department, stressed that the Microbiology Department will be held accountable for the violations, while Saint Paul Hospital has to take responsibility for its mismanagement of medical equipment.

The cutting of test strips leads to inaccurate test results. HIV-positive people or those infected with hepatitis B could have been informed that they had tested negative for these diseases and could unknowingly infect their relatives or others, stated Ha.

She added that the city’s investigators are probing the hospital’s violations in conducting tests.

Following the misconduct at Saint Paul Hospital, the Hanoi Health Department asked the hospital’s top official as well as the directors of private and public hospitals in the city to tighten their management over testing quality and the use of chemicals and medical equipment, and to discipline any violators. SGT

Hanoi leader gets shock at Saint Paul Hospital’s HIV testing scandal

Deputy Head of the Hanoi Party Committee’s Commission for Culture and Ideology Pham Thanh Hoc yesterday said that the case that medical workers of Saint Paul Hospital cut HIV and hepatitis B testing strips in half for trial is very serious.