Contractor apologises over Hong Kong surgical light safety scare after Hospital Authority tells it to publicly address incident, cover expenses
- Medical tech company Getinge expresses ‘sincere apologies’ to Hospital Authority, and has also been suspended from tendering for contracts until next September
- One worker was struck and left with a shoulder injury after light crashed down in operating theatre in February
A contractor has apologised over a Hong Kong hospital safety scare involving an operating theatre light that crashed down and injured a worker, with the firm vowing improvements after authorities told it to publicly address the incident and cover all losses and expenses.
“Our company would like to express sincere apologies to our customer, the [Hospital Authority], for all the inconvenience caused by the incident,” medical technology firm Getinge said in a statement published in several newspapers on Wednesday.
“We have addressed this with the highest priority and all relevant departments are committed to preventing similar incidents in the future,” the Sweden-based company said.
Getinge also pledged to strengthen its cooperation with the public hospital operator and improve safety measures in response to the February incident.
The Hospital Authority on Tuesday said the company had stoked serious safety concerns by performing “below the standard” of its contract requirements, so disciplinary action had to be taken.
Getinge has also been suspended from tendering until next September.
No patients were in the operating theatre in United Christian Hospital when the surgical light crashed down on February 18, though one anaesthetic assistant was struck and left with a shoulder injury.
The incident triggered a citywide inspection of 471 surgical lights used in public hospitals.
