FRIDAY-7TH DECEMBER 2007-ELDERLY MAN MISTAKENLY X-RAYED TWICE

Elderly man ‘mistakenly X-rayed twice’
THE Health Department is looking into a complaint from a Sipitang resident who was appalled by the poor service rendered to a relative at a government hospital. SALLY said her elderly uncle was forced to undergo an x-ray twice due to an oversight on the part of the personnel manning this machine. “My uncle looked troubled when he came out of the x-ray room the first time,” she said. “The medical officer at the ward had told him that he was to have his waist x-rayed. But the radiologist x-rayed his chest instead.’ She said the latter did not realise his mistake until she pointed it out. “He came out of the room and told me to take my uncle back to the ward, Only when I told him what my uncle had related to me did he ask for my uncle to undergo a second x-ray.” Sally said this staff neither apologised for the error nor explained how the mix-up could have happened. “I hope the management of the hospital would intervene so that the staff at the X-ray room are more careful in future.” She detailed her experience in a letter to Hotline which was forwarded to the Department on November 14. A Department spokesman said the agency was investigating this incident. “We will have to verify the resident’s allegations. before proceeding with further action,’ he said.