Pregnant mum diagnosed HIV positive by polyclinic by mistake

When you’re pregnant, it’s normal to have anxieties about many things – including those that are health related. The last thing a pregnant mum needs is to be diagnosed with a serious condition she doesn’t have. But this is what happened recently. One pregnant mum diagnosed HIV positive got the shock of her life upon receiving the medical reports from Outram Polyclinic. 

Here’s the erroneous report. | Image: Stomp screengrab

Pregnant Mum Diagnosed HIV Positive: A State of Confusion

The mum’s husband, known as Mr Ng, wrote to citizen journalism site Stomp with details of what reportedly happened. He was also interviewed by The Straits Times. 

On May 28, his Filipino wife attended a medical examination to apply for permanent residency in Singapore. They already have a child, and she is currently pregnant. 

Mr Ng says that when he got the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) medical examination report back from the Outram Polyclinic on June 6, he was shocked by the results. 

The report indicated that his pregnant wife was HIV positive. 

However, another medical report his wife got on the same day claimed otherwise. Fair enough, the husband and wife were extremely confused. 

The other report showing a negative result. | Image: Stomp Screengrab

Clarifications Demanded

Mr Ng said that he contacted SingHealth to get to the bottom of what happened. And if his wife was indeed HIV positive, he was even considering a divorce. 

“This is not a small issue. She is pregnant with a second child there are a lot of risks involved,” he elaborated.

“If we were to be of weak heart and mind, divorce could have taken place or even suicide could have happened with the unborn baby inside. If I were to be a father or a mother who knows the baby will be born HIV positive, the second thing that could have happened was an abortion,” he told Stomp. 

Since then, however, things were cleared up by the clinic director of SingHealth Polyclinics-Outram, Dr Sinead Wang. She said “We apologise unreservedly for the distress and anxiety caused to our patient and her family for the transcribing error in the ICA medical examination report.

“We have counselled the attending doctor and taken steps to strengthen our processes to ensure that this does not happen again.

“We apologise unreservedly for the distress and anxiety caused to our patient and her family for the transcribing error in the ICA medical examination report. The patient visited Outram Polyclinic in June 2018.

“During the visit, the patient requested for the doctor to certify her ICA medical examination report.

“During the process, the doctor mistakenly ticked the HIV ‘positive’ box in the report, even though the HIV screening result was negative.

“Following the incident, we have contacted the patient and her family to extend our apologies and provided them with a fresh ICA medical examination report.

“We have counselled the attending doctor and taken steps to strengthen our processes to ensure that this does not happen again.”

The pregnant mum has also been provided with a corrected report from SingHealth.

What a lot of stress for this family! We’re glad things were sorted out for them. 

Sources: Stomp, The Straits Times

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