Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan apologized for KKH medication

[Iisterry]

Something good about them for a change.

 

 

Health Minister Mr Khaw Boon Wan had apologized to the two victims of the KKH medication blunder on his blog in an entry dated 22 November 2009:

“The chemo overdose errors in KKH were human errors. They should not have happened, but they did. We are sorry for the mistakes and are all saddened by the incidents,” he wrote in the opening paragraph.

 

Mr Khaw also commended the Yip family for their magnanimity in forgiving the two pharmacists responsible for the error.

 

“We all make mistakes but we must readily admit them and learn from the mistakes so that they do not get repeated.

 

To err is human; to forgive, divine. To be able to forgive requires a higher level of wisdom and generosity,” he added.

 

While Mr Khaw has apologized for the unfortunate error, nothing is heard from KKH CEO Prof Ivy Ng, who is incidentally the wife of Education Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen.

Mr Khaw’s gentlemanly gesture will surely win him much respect and goodwill from Singaporeans.

 

Singapore’s ministers have rarely apologized or accept responsibility for their mistakes and there is no opposition in parliament to hold them accountable.

 

Minister of Environment Dr Yaacob Ibrahim was quick to pin the blame for the flooding at Bukit Timah last week on a “freak” event which occurs “once in fifty years”.

 

There was no apology from him to the distressed residents of Bukit Timah who have suffered a loss from the flood.

 

Instead he urged them to be “patient” as construction work to widen the canals will only commence next year.

 

Mr Khaw is one of the only two ministers who keeps a blog and Facebook page. The other is Foreign Minister George Yeo.

 

Mr Khaw’s blog was started in September this year and he has been updating it on a regular basis. His Facebook has garnered more than 1,200 fans so far.

 

For some strange reasons, the English media chose to leave out Mr Khaw’s apology in their coverage of his blog entry, focusing instead on his exhortation to KKH and other hospitals to learn from the incident.

 

Source.

 

The chemo overdose errors in KKH were human errors. They should not have happened, but they did. We are sorry for the mistakes and are all saddened by the incidents. The two KKH pharmacists, I am told, are traumatised. We will learn from these mistakes and make sure they do not get repeated.

 

Meanwhile, the top priority is to get both patients on full recovery. They have been in my prayers ever since the incidents arose.

 

The first patient has since recovered and is able to return home. The second patient, Mrs Yip, is still in KKH. KKH told me that she is making very good progress and the doctors expect to have her return home soon. I am greatly relieved.

 

Throughout this crisis, what has touched me deeply is the generosity and understanding of both patients.

 

The reaction of the Yip family is especially moving. Yesterday, ST reported Mr Yip as saying this: "The KKH team has put in tremendous effort and I appreciate it." At one time, he had told his two sons to "hope for the best but to be prepared for the worst". Yes, he admitted fear that she would die. She was angry (who would not?) when the pharmacists visited her to explain and apologise.

 

But her husband reminded her that mistakes do happen and that there had been no malice. The second time, they visited her, she forgave them.

 

Mr Yip said the pharmacists should be penalised for their mistake, but he did not want them fired or in any way ostracised. Even criminals are given a second chance under the Yellow Ribbon scheme, he said and the pair were not criminals. He added that the state had put a lot into training them, so their services should not be lost just because of one incident.

 

He admitted that he was being forgiving because he has seen how hard the doctors have worked to save his wife. "If KKH hadn't reacted so quickly and been so transparent, admitting thier mistake right from the start, I would have reacted very differently" he said.

 

KKH and the other hospitals will draw many lessons from this incident. It reaffims to me that there are many decent human beings in our midst.

 

We all make mistakes but we must readily admit them and learn from the mistakes so that they do not get repeated.

 

To err is human; to forgive, divine. To be able to forgive requires a higher level of wisdom and generosity. The Yip Family has that in abundance.

 

Source.

Edited November 23, 2009 by Iisterry

[Hondacub777]

He is one of the minister i respect most .

[Wilb]

Good they are being transparent about this and they are willing to open up. Hope they do learn a lesson, precious lifes are at stake.

[Vroomtattat]

He is one of the minister i respect most .

 

Yes, he is one of the better Minister.

 

They should not have happened, but they did. We are sorry for the mistakes and are all saddened by the incidents,

[Vroomtattat]

Good they are being transparent about this and they are willing to open up. Hope they do learn a lesson, precious lifes are at stake.

 

More likely "Reputation at stake" . . . we strive to be a medical hub you know

[Hondacub777]

Yes, he is one of the better Minister.

 

They should not have happened, but they did. We are sorry for the mistakes and are all saddened by the incidents,

[Leepee]

Say sorry. Does this mean the two family will not sue the hospital and the two staff?

Wow, just swept away just like that.

No wonder li ao say Singaporean are stupid and easily fooled.

 

 

[Vroomtattat]

All sama sama school lah.LKY university.

 

LOL . . . .

[Blueray]

at least he came out and apologised ... other ministers would have taken cover long ago.

 

had a good impression of him when handled the Bt Panjang LRT incident some years back. straight talker.

[Curahee]

Need to change their tactic, now go for a softer approach, their party dominance at stake esp now election abt to come liao, muz let the "gd" feeling to start brewing among us

[Hamburger]

mayb out of hospital settlement tat is not to b known to e public..........

[Picanto]

dun you think the def ministar also ought to apologize those parents whose sons have died in saf?

[CH_CO]

then should the transport minister come out to apologize for those which died in a road accident?

Edited November 23, 2009 by CH_CO

[Scion]

at least this 辉哥 will apologise for mistakes...

 

I Can't Sing and Marlboro Tan would find ton of excuses liao

[Zniper]

All sama sama school lah.LKY university.

 

u muz be genius during baby to enter LKY pri sch than follow by LKY sec sch and straight away jump to LKY uni.... now after tis script shld be going for PHD in LKY uni too...

[Stary]

He is one of the minister i respect most .

 

 

He is a FT.

 

Now you know why we need FT...

[Iisterry]

at least he came out and apologised ... other ministers would have taken cover long ago.

 

had a good impression of him when handled the Bt Panjang LRT incident some years back. straight talker.

 

Yep. Most of the rest have a habit of blaming everything but themselves.

 

What was with the Bt Panjang LRT?

 

Freaky stuffs

 

If you are going to fork out money to spend one night with your spouse or lover in one of the most luxurious hotels in Singapore like the Raffles Hotel, Marina Mandarin or Pan Pacific, you would naturally expect out of the world service worth every single cent paid.

 

Unfortunately, the air-conditioner in your room somehow leaked in the middle of the night when you were soundly asleep and you found your $1,000 Armandi cloak soaked wet the next day.

 

This is a “freak” event which happens once in fifty years. The hotel would probably have your cloak replaced for free and on top of that, give you another night’s stay in its presidential suite. Such is the response expected from a world-class hotel.

 

Similarly, if one has the fortune of staying in a country governed by the highest paid leaders in the entire world, especially on a small island well sheltered from the unpredictable forces of nature, one should expect living a carefree life with few hassles from Mother Nature.

 

Of course “freak” events do happen at times as Bukit Timah residents discovered to their horror when their houses, cars and whatever became submerged by rainwater last Thursday.

 

According to the state media, Thursday’s intense rainfall which was about six times that of a normal storm resulted in massive amounts of water to drain into Bukit Timah 1st Diversion Canal, causing it to overflow.

 

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim described the flooding of parts of Bukit Timah on Thursday as a “freak” event that occurs once in 50 years.

“What happened was very unusual. The intensity was tremendous. We knew the diversion canal was not big enough to take this,” he added. (CNA, 20 Nov 2009)

 

Did Mr Yacacob know the limitations of the canal only after the flood? If he had known earlier, why wasn’t the canal expanded?

 

Dr Yaacob did not explain why the canals were not widened earlier to prepare for this “freak” event”. He claimed that it is “not possible” to plan for every event.

 

“I hope the public will have more patience with us because it will take us some time to enlarge those drains. But having said that, it is not possible for us to plan for every event,” he said.

 

But surely it is not too much for Singaporeans to expect a multi-millionaire minister to plan ahead and prepare for such “freak” events beforehand?

 

By Mr Yaacob’s definition, a “freak” event occurs once in fifty years. Twenty five years had passed since the canals were first built which means there is a 50 per cent chance it will happen anytime between now and another quarter of a century later.

 

Mr Yaacob was appointed the Minister of Environment and Water Resources in 2004. He had 5 years to do something about the canals. It is 5 years, not 5 months, weeks or days! How can such a “freak” event be allowed to happen?

 

Unfortunately, the Bukit Timah flooding wasn’t the first “freak” event encountered by Mr Yaacob during his tenure.

 

In case Mr Yaacob forgot, he used the same excuse to exonerate himself and his ministry from any blame back in December 2006 when heavy rain caused excess water from the MacRitchie and Upper Seletar reservoirs to overflow and flood the surrounding areas.

 

In an interview with Channel News Asia, Mr Yaacob said:

“You can’t design for rainfall of this level, it is just too huge. The thing we can accept is that we can only design our canal of a certain size, and at the end of the day, we have to live with some of these occurrences which occur once in 50 years or so. I know it is inconvenient to some Singaporeans, but on the part of PUB and NEA, we’ll do our best to alleviate the problem as quickly as possible.”

 

If an unusually heavy downpour is a “freak” event, what about Typhoon Morakot which hits Taiwan a few months ago, the Sichuan earthquake last year and the Asian tsunami in 2004?

 

Singaporeans are told again and again that their leaders are the best talents in the world who can easily earn more in the private sector and we should be thankful to them for willing to serve “lesser mortals” like us.

 

It appears that even first world talents do get caught out wet in the cold sometimes by “freak” events like this.

 

Fortunately, the “Thunder God” got the blame this time instead of Singaporeans as in the last “freak” event which occurred under Mr Yaacob’s watch.

 

In April this year, two Singaporeans died and hundreds fell ill from a mass food poisoning outbreak after eating from an Indian Rojak stall at the Geylang Serai temporary market.

You would think that deaths from gastroenteritis only occur in third world countries, but to happen in squeaky clean Singapore is really a “freak” event beyond our wildest dream.

 

The exact cause of the “freak” event was never discovered though the authorities did find a convenient scapegoat in the beleaguered Indian Rojak stallholder who was charged in court.

The Management Committee of the market which was linked to a grassroots organizations was not taken to task. Neither was the National Environment Agency whose officials somehow forgot to send the latest food grading labels to the stallholders.

 

As usual, Singaporeans were blamed for the “freak” event, this time for not practicing proper hygiene in public, never mind the fact that Indian Rojak is eaten using fork and spoon and not bare hands.

 

One isolated incident of flooding in 50 years may be considered a “freak” event, but how about two cases in less than two years?

 

Is Mr Yaacob becoming a minister a “freak” event too?

 

Singaporeans must be praying hard that no more “freak” events will occur again under Mr Yaacob’s watch for he is unable to do anything about it except to tell you that it is not possible for him to “plan” for every event because it is a “freak” event.

 

Source.

Edited November 24, 2009 by Iisterry

[Hondacub777]

He is a FT.

 

Now you know why we need FT...

i have to admit he is one good FT.