SGH hep C outbreak: PM Lee stresses need to be open and transparent with the public

SINGAPORE — While it remains unclear what caused the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) hepatitis C outbreak,  Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stressed today (Oct 10) the need to be open and transparent with the public, as the authorities seek to establish and rectify what went wrong. 

Making his first comments on the outbreak, Mr Lee said: "When something like this happens our approach must always be first... to find out what's wrong, to put things right, to safeguard the health and well-being of patients. Establish what happened, learn from the experience to improve and do better in future. And we also always have to be open and transparent with the public and with the patients about what has happened. Because we must maintain public confidence, and trust in the healthcare system." 

This is the approach taken by the Ministry of Health which is investigating the outbreak, said Mr Lee, who added that he could not say yet what had happened. 

Speaking at the official opening of Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and Jurong Community Hospital, Mr Lee also noted that Singapore is operating a "huge and complicated" healthcare system, with nearly 400,000 inpatient admissions this year and the number is growing. The challenge is to "maintain the highest quality of medical care" for patients even as the complexity increases, he said.  Once in a while, "something will go wrong" as it evidently did in SGH, said Mr Lee, referring to the hepatitis C outbreak.  

The unprecedented viral outbreak, which was made public on Tuesday, is possibly due to a lapse in the use of multi-dose medication vials. The outbreak has infected 22 patients, with the first case being detected on April 17. Eight of the 22 affected patients have died. Among these deaths, four were linked to the viral infection, while a fifth is under review. Two of the remaining 14 survivors are still hospitalised.

A total of 951 patients and SGH staff will be screened to check if they were affected by the outbreak. The hospital has managed to contact a majority of these people and the screenings are underway. As of yesterday, 32 patients were yet to be reached. In an update yesterday, SGH said 186 patients, as well as 202 out of 273 hospital employees who had worked at the renal ward, have been screened. Results of the tests will be available after a week. The hepatitis C virus has an incubation period of between two weeks and six months.