Singapore hospital to compensate 180 misdiagnosed breast cancer patients who received unnecessary treatment
At least 200 patients were wrongly classified as having a more aggressive form of breast cancer than their actual condition due to a lab error at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH), Senior Minister of State for Health Koh Poh Koon said in Parliament on 4 Jan 2021.
Of these, eight patients were treated at private hospitals and 192 patients at government-run hospitals. Eight patients are pending retests. Responding to questions about the efficacy of the test and why it took eight years for the problem to surface, Dr Koh said that testing for HER2 is a complex process and it took years for a significantly higher-than-normal positivity rate to appear before it was clear there was an issue with the results. Dr Koh also clarified that although KTPH is reassessing results from 2012, it does not mean that all the results since 2012 were wrong. “It may well be that the errors could have occured in the last three months or six months (but) KTPH is being prudent and careful by going back … all the way to when the test first started,” he said. Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/breast-cancer-test-error-khoo-teck-puat-hospital-refunds-13890192 Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) will be compensating the breast cancer patients who, over a span of eight years, were misdiagnosed with a type of malfunctioning gene because of lapses at the Singapore hospital. About 180 of its breast cancer patients over the past eight years may have been incorrectly diagnosed with a type of malfunctioning gene, and half of them may have received unnecessary treatment. Source: https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/khoo-teck-puat-hospital-compensate-misdiagnosed-breast-cancer-patients-five-staff Why is it that "at least 200 patients were wrongly classified" but only "about 180" will get compensation? If "the errors could have occured in the last three months or six months" then is the government saying that within a span of "three months or six months" got 180 to 200 misdiagnoses? Or the misdiagnoses are over a period of 8 years but the government is complacent, so only managed to find out now?
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