Singapore General Hospital apologises after Facebook user raises unhappiness over father's bruised hands
Family’s request to speak to a senior doctor was not conveyed accordingly, but SGH assures patient was taken care of by experienced care team
SINGAPORE — Singapore General Hospital (SGH) took to social media on Wednesday (10 January) to apologise and clarify why the hands of an elderly patient warded on its premises were heavily bruised.
The post was made in response to Facebook user Teri T Tan’s post on 8 January, in which she shared images of her late father’s bruised hands.
She shared that she first discovered that her father’s left hand had numerous needle holes and looked bruised and swollen on 23 November last year, amid his stay at SGH. She wrote in her post that this was caused by SGH staff “repeatedly inserting and removing the needle into various parts of my father’s hand as if they were figuring out which was the correct spot" to collect his blood sample.
In response to the post, SGH's chairman of the Division of Medicine, Associate Professor Loo Chian Min, said, “Elderly patients, as well as those on certain medications, often have fragile skin and thin veins. This makes blood taking difficult and can lead to bruising as several attempts may be required even though our staff are competent in performing the procedure.
"We are sorry that the family’s request to speak to a senior doctor was not conveyed accordingly. We would like to assure Ms Tan and her family that the patient was looked after by an experienced care team, who was constantly updating the patient’s wife throughout his stay with us."
Daughter's account reveals concerns over junior residents' care at SGH
The Facebook user said that on 2 December last year, she saw that her father’s right hand was bruised and swollen and was told by the staff nurse that it was caused by the resident doctor.
She requested to speak to the doctor and was informed that he was doing his rounds and would meet her after that. However after waiting for 40 minutes, she was informed that the doctor had already left the hospital as it was a Saturday.
Her father passed away on 10 December, and the hospital experience left a sour taste in Tan’s mouth. “We had put my father there in good faith but it turned out that the doctors were all junior residents who were incompetent and had used him as a guinea pig for their training/experiments,” she said, adding that requests to speak to a senior doctor had gone unheard.
SGH responds to Facebook post
SGH confirmed that, by the time the request to see the doctor was received on 2 December, he was already off-duty and had left the hospital. However, the doctor had attempted to call Ms Tan unsuccessfully after that, and later spoke the patient’s wife to “explain the bruises on the patient’s hands that the family was concerned about".
“We respect our patients who entrust their care in us. We are appreciative that the patient’s wife was understanding and accepted our explanation and apology fro the discomfort caused,” said the hospital in its reply.
They also apologised that the family’s request to speak to a senior doctor “was not conveyed accordingly”.
The hospital has reached out to the family privately on the matter.
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