Same name mix-up: Guj COVID-19 patient erroneously discharged

PTI, May 23, 2020, 6:29 PM IST

Ahmedabad: In an embarrassing mix-up in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad, a coronavirus positive man was discharged from hospital on the basis of a negative report that actually belonged to another person with the same name, officials said on Saturday.

The authorities at civic-run Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Hospital admitted the mistake and issued an apology on Saturday, adding the human error was rectified soon with the wrongly discharged person being brought back and admitted in the facility within hours.

“On Thursday, the hospital received reports of samples of two patients with the same name within a gap of around five hours. The first report the hospital received at around 2 pm was negative for coronavirus, based on which one of the duo was discharged,” the hospital said in a statement.

“However, the report of the sample of the second patient with the same name was received at around 7 pm and it was coronavirus positive. It was only after the second report was received that it was realised the patient discharged in the afternoon had actually tested positive for coronavirus,” the hospital statement added.

On learning about the “human error”, the discharged patient was informed, and an ambulance was immediately rushed to bring him back to the hospital, it said.

The medical team has been directed, in strong words by the hospital management, to take special precaution in such matters, the statement informed.

It also said SVP Hospital had so far treated 4,131 COVID-19 patients.

Till Saturday morning, Ahmedabad city reported 9,577 COVID-19 cases, including 638 deaths. The city currently has 5.190 active cases.

SVP Hospital is a super-speciality public hospital of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.