Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday asked the Pingtung County Government to look into why a Pingtung clinic gave the wrong drug to more than 100 people, sickening several children, and to mete out the harshest punishments possible.
"While the first priority is to save the sick children, the agencies concerned should investigate why the clinic made such a horrible mistake and deliver the most severe punishments possible in accordance with the law," Cabinet Spokesman Chuang Suo-hang (
If the punishments stipulated in existing laws are too light or outdated, Yu said, the Cabinet's Department of Health should take the initiative to review the regulations and make necessary revisions.
"The incident reflects the negligence of medical management, which has endangered the health of patients and is a problem we have to face seriously," Yu said.
To prevent similar accidents in the future, Yu said, the Department of Health should solicit opinions from medical experts and academics to discuss how to improve medical management.
"The department should also offer psychological counseling to the families of victims to help them overcome the trauma," he said.
Yu made the remarks during the weekly closed-door Cabinet affairs meeting yesterday morning.
The mistake occurred when patients were given a drug for diabetes instead of an antihistamine.
Yu said nine children under the age of 10 had been taken to hospitals in Pingtung and Kaohsiung after being given the drug, although the head of Pingtung County's Bureau of Health said on Tuesday that 15 children under the age of three had been hospitalized.
Yu said seven of the children were still in hospital in a stable condition, but an eight-month old baby was still on a life-support machine.
The clinic's owner, Wu Ping-chien (
Prosecutors have already questioned the clinic owner, administrative physicians, a pharmacist and five nurses. The county's health bureau has also fined Wu NT$150,000 for lack of supervision.
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